DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Ethiopian great Haile Gebrselassie came agonizingly close to beating his own world record and collecting a $1 million bonus as he won the Dubai Marathon on Friday.
It was another stunning performance from distance running legend Gebrselassie.
The 34-year-old faded in the closing stages but his time of two hours, four minutes and 53 seconds was the second-fastest time ever.
He was just 28 seconds outside his 25th world best and breaking a record he set in winning the Berlin marathon last year.
"The idea was to complete the first half in about 62 minutes, but I was almost half a minute too fast. I paid the price for that in the final stages of the race," said Gebrselassie, who still earned $250,000 in prize money.
Kenyans finished second and third, with Isaac Macharia in 2:07:16 and Sammy Korir in 2:08:01, while Berhane Adere won the women's race in 2:22:42, leading an Ethiopian sweep of the top three spots.
Bezunesh Bekele was second in 2:23:09, followed by 2007 champion Askale Magarska in 2:23:23.
In perfect conditions, Gebrselassie and his pacemakers set a scorching speed from the start. He was 45 seconds ahead of the record at the 10 kilometers mark, and was a minute and one second to the good at halfway.
But after the last of his pacemakers dropped back at 30 kilometers, Gebrselassie started to slow. "Trying to break a world record in distance racing is not easy," he said.
"Everything needs to be well planned and all conditions really need to be perfect. I guess I missed one little thing today." E-mail to a friend
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