Gebrselassie takes fourth successive Berlin marathon crown
Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie won his fourth successive Berlin Marathon title but missed out on breaking his own world record this morning.
Gebrselassie became the first man to run under 2 hours, 04 minutes when he smashed his own world record for the second consecutive year in 2008 and slashed 27 seconds off his previous mark to clock 2:03.59.
But this year, warm conditions scuppered any hopes of him breaking the record though he led the race throughout to take victory in 2:06.08.
Kenya's Francis Kiprop was second in a personal best of 2:07:04 and Haile's compatriot Negari Therfa was third in 2:07:41, another personal best.
Haile said after the race: "I think I gave too much at the beginning because I was really tired with about 10km to go.
"But I expected more from my opponents - I just made sure I ran my best and I'm really happy to win it for the fourth time.
"It was too hot for a new world record, but I am happy with the time, the last few kilometres were hard."
Ethiopian Atsede Habtamu Besuye won the women's marathon crossing the line in 2:24:47, Silvia Skvortsova of Russia was second in 2:26:24 and Mamitu Daska of Ethiopia was third in 2:26:38.
A record number of 40,923 runners from 122 nations had entered the 36th edition of the Berlin Marathon.
