Haile Gebrselassie To Return To Berlin Marathon

He has won the race on four occasions and has set the world record twice there.

The world-record holder in the marathon will be heading back to the course that has done him so well in the past. On Friday, race organizers announced that in September, Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia will compete in the Berlin Marathon. The 38-year-old has won the race four straight years from 2006 to 2009. In 2007, he set the current record of 2:03:59 on the Berlin course.

Gebrselassie is upbeat about his chances this year, saying that the “course is very fast” and that “everything is possible on a good day.”

Gebrselassie remains the world-record holder in the marathon, despite Geoffrey Mutai’s 2:03:02 at the Boston Marathon earlier this year. Mutai’s time was not sanctioned due to the Boston course being too straight and containing too much downhill.

Haile Gebrselassie has been undergoing some volatility in his career as of late. Last November, he dropped out of the ING New York City Marathon and immediately announced his retirement–a decision that would later to be a premature one when he reconsidered several weeks later.

For More: USA Today