Legendary Gebrselassie Officially Retires

Legendary Ethiopian distance runner Haile Gebrselassie has officially retired from competetive running after his 16th place finish at Great Manchester Run on Sunday May 10.

Gebrselassie in his final competetive race in Manchester posted a time of 30.05 over 10km to finish in 16th place.  

“I’m very happy to stop here. I knew this was going to be the last one. I’m retiring from competitive running, not from running,” he said to BBC Sport after the race in Manchester on Sunday.

In november of 2015 Haile Gebrselassie reversed his decision to retire from sports. The Ethiopian announced his intention to retire after pulling out of the 2010 New York marathon with 15 km remaining due to a knee injury but later he changed his mind afterwords.

In his career the 42 year old Ethiopian won 2 Olympic golds,  4 Outdoor championship gold medals, 4 world indoor championships golds and 1  world half marathon title. He broke world records in events from 5000m, 10000m and up  to marathon total of 27 times.

Gebreslassie dominated the sport in distance running from 2013 to 2003.  He was also the first man to break 2:04 in the marathon by winning 2003 Berlin marathon in 2:03:59.

Not only Gebrselassie was famous for his uncountable achievements, but also for his enormous positive attitude and smile he expressed to people where ever he would appear.

“You cannot stop running, this is my life.” Smiling Gebrselassie added.

In the same race on Sunday Bernard Lagat clocked 27:48 and  broke Gebrselassie's wolrd masters record of 28:00.