Ethiopia's world marathon record holder Haile Gebrselassie on Wednesday explained the reason for his pullout of Olympic marathon in Beijing this August, saying that on Sept. 28 at the 2008 Berlin Marathon he wants to improve his own world record time for the marathon.
Haile broke the world record for the marathon (2:04:26) at the Berlin Marathon in 2007.
"You cannot run two marathons in the space of five weeks," he told Xinhua.
"Also, no athlete has ever broken a world record for the marathon at the Olympics.
"Athletes competing at the Olympics are running for gold medals, not for fast times," he said.
He said the reason that he is not running the marathon in Beijing is because he wants to write his name in the history books of world athletics by becoming the first athlete to run the marathon in under two hours and four minutes.
(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2008)