Ambitious Haile

It seems like Haile Gebrselassie’s recent performance in Hengelo and Ostrava has put him on cloud nine. His confidence took a shot at the London Marathon in April but it looks to have restored fully… or, at least enough to take a very unusual and bold move of signing up for and making a big announcement about a marathon he plans to run after his next marathon in Berlin.

Haile is confident enough that he will be successful at Berlin and stay healthy enough to jump in the million dollar chase at the Dubai Marathon in January 2008. His agent Jos Hermens says “Ideally, I’d like him [Haile] to break the World record a little in Berlin, then a lot in Dubai.” Haile himself says “My aims are to break the marathon World record, and win the Olympic Games marathon. I’d like to break the World record here in Dubai, and my training towards that begins tomorrow.” What about Berlin, Haile?

It appears that both Haile and Hermens have practically written off Berlin and are just looking forward to Dubai. Say what you may, I think this is a huge disrespect to the Berlin Marathon. If I were the organizers, I would ask for my money back from Haile/Hermens.