| Haile Gebrselassie |
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Haile Gebrselassie (born . The tone for his prodigiously successful career was set early: according to his biography on the International Olympic Committee website, as a child growing up on a farm in Ethiopia he used to run ten kilometres to school every morning, and the same back every evening. This led to a distinctive running posture, with his left arm crooked as if still holding his schoolbooks. EARLY CAREER Gebrselassie gained international recognition in on August 22, 1997, running under 12:40 for the first time in history with a 12:39.74. LATER CAREER The next year, just 13 days after lowering and Assefa Mezgebu led Gebrselassie through 2,000 meters in 5:05.62. His pacemakers could not maintain the pace, though, and Gebrselassie was left alone for a difficult solo effort 6 laps out. Hitting 3,000 meters in 7:38.93, even the British commentators announcing the race counted him out. With 4 laps to go (8:40.00), Gebrselassie needed a sub-4 minute final mile for the record. With one lap to go and in great pain, Gebrselassie took off, recording a fabulous final lap of 56.77 seconds and a final mile inside 4 minutes to race to a 12:39.36 world record, one of 20 of his illustrious career. On August 30 2003 Gebrselassie topped the polls when elected as a member of the IAAF Athletes Commission. In 1999 Gebrselassie starred as himself in the movie "Endurance." The film chronicled his quest to win Olympic gold in the 10,000-meters. In 2004 , Gebrselassie came to the Olympic Games seeking to become the first man in history to win three straight Olympic gold medals in the 10000 metre run. He was unable to do so, however, finishing fifth in a race won by his countryman and protégé Kenenisa Bekele , who had broken both of Gebreselassie's major track world records, the 5000m and the 10000m records, shortly before the Athens games. Gebrselassie had lost 3 weeks of training due to an Achilles Tendon injury. It was severe enough that he would not have competed had the race been any other than the Olympics. This loss of the final period of training, when Gebrselassie observed that he sharpened his finishing sprint with tough, fast sprinting climbing the steep hills surrounding his training ground in Ethiopia, may have cost him a medal. Since then Gebrselassie has focussed on running the Marathon . After London 2002, Amsterdam 2005 was his second. His personal best time is 2:06:20. Gebrselassie started 2006 positively by shattering the world of the Netherlands . On April 23 2006 , he finished 9th in the London Marathon with a time of 2:09:05. The race was won by Kenyan Felix Limo who clocked 2:06:39. HONORS
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