Sport
Patrick Makau sets world record in Berlin Marathon
Haile Gebrselassie lost the race against time on Sunday when Patrick Makau (pictured), shattered his marathon world record and ended an era of two decades dominated by arguably the greatest distance runner in history.
His lungs seizing up and struggling for air after more than 27 kilometers (17 miles) of the Berlin Marathon, Gebrselassie finally quit shortly after kilometer 35.
By then, Makau was more than two minutes ahead, on his own and on the way to the German capital’s landmark Brandenburg Gate and a new world record.
“I was hoping to gain a lot of experience but not to win,” Makau said after slashing 21 seconds from Gebrselassie’s old mark.
Makau pulled away after 27 kilometers and finished in 2 hours, 3 minutes, 38 seconds.
Gebrselassie, whose previous record stood at 2:03.59, pulled up after Makau’s breakaway and seemed on the verge of giving up when he stopped running and bent over, holding his chest. After about a minute, he resumed the race.
“He was still feeling good at 25K but then his lungs started tightening up, he could not breathe, we don’t know why,” Gebrselassie’s agent Jos Hermens told The Associated Press.
Gebrselassie suffers from asthma and is allowed to take medicine to treat the condition, but hadn’t taken any because he had not had any problems for months, Hermens said.
“Maybe this was a mistake, but he felt fine before, his preparation was good,” Hermens said.
Gebrselassie had won four successive Berlin marathons from 2006 and set his world record in 2008.
“This is not the end of Haile, but this is the end of an era,” Hermans said.
Makau, whose previous personal best was 2:04.48, also won last year’s event in driving rain. Sunday’s race on Berlin’s flat course took place in sunny, mild conditions.
