Press Release - Berlin Marathon - 6/17/11

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

              Haile Gebrselassie at the starting line of the 
                  BMW BERLIN MARATHON on September 25th 

With the BMW BERLIN MARATHON 100 days away, race director Mark Milde 
announced the return of marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie to 
the streets of Berlin. Here the Ethiopian superstar of long distance 
running had his greatest success as a marathon runner winning four times in 
a row between 2006 and 2009 clocking the world marathon record twice (2007 
and 2008). His record time of 2:03:59 hrs still stands to day as the mark 
to beat. "I love the Berlin Marathon. The crowds are phantastic and on a 
good day everything is possible on this extremely fast course," 
Gebrselassie said. 

Haile Gebrselassie wants to qualify for the Ethiopian squad at the Olympic 
marathon in London next year. The last marathon he completed was the 2010 
Dubai Marathon (2:08:09). Last November he dropped out of the ING NEW YORK 
CITY MARATHON after 25 kilometres with knee problems and announced the end 
of his running career. Shortly thereafter he stepped back from his decision 
and announced to run the Tokyo Marathon in February. He had to skip this 
race though after he fell on a training run and hurt his knee. In April he 
happened to be in shape again by winning the Vienna City Half Marathon. In 
May he won a 10 k road race in Manchester (England) in 28:10 min. 

In the women's race Irina Mikitenko is back again on the course where her 
marathon career had started in 2007. In the following year she clocked 
2:19:19 hrs here for a course record making her the fourth fastest woman of 
all time. In 2008 and 2009 she won the World Marathon Majors series of 
marathons (Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York City, Olympic Games 
and World Championships). In 2010 she was handicapped by an injury dropping 
out at the Virgin London Marathon in the spring and placing 5th at Chicago 
in the fall. Last April she ran 2:24:41 for seventh place in London after 
running most of the distance on her own. In Berlin she wants to qualify for 
the Olympic marathon 2012 in London. 

The BMW BERLIN MARATHON is sold out since February. Registration had 
started October 18th. The participation limit is set at 40.000. Entries for 
the Inline Skating Marathon on Saturday, September 25th are still 
available. Accreditation is possible starting August 1st (until September 
9th). The BMW BERLIN MARATHON will be televised live on n-tv nationally for 
four hours and on Eurosport from 9 until 11.30 a.m.

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