BERLIN, (Reuters) – Haile Gebrselassie won the  Berlin marathon for the fourth straight year on Sunday but the  Ethiopian failed to break his own world record after fading in  the warm weather towards the end of the race.

Gebrselassie, inside world record pace for more than two  thirds of the race, clocked a time of 2 hours 6 minutes 8  seconds, well outside the blistering record of 2:03:59 he set in  the same city in 2008.
Kenyan Francis Kiprop was second, almost a minute later, and  Ethiopian Negari Terfa came in third.

“My pace was perfect. I was in record breaking pace until  kilometre 33,” said Gebrselassie, who set an unofficial world  record for the 30km with 1:27:49.

“I felt good but then it got warmer and then I don’t know, I  went to unknown (territory).”

“If you accept the 30km world record, it’s not bad. it’s  good for my collection,” the Ethiopian said with a grin.

Gebrselassie, who also broke the then world record here in  2007, and challenger Duncan Kibet, the second fastest man over  the distance, set off at a quick pace.

With a group of high quality pacemakers including Luke  Kibet, who won the marathon gold medal at the Osaka 2007 World  athletics championships, Gebrselassie shook off Kibet at the  20km mark before the Kenyan dropped out.

But as the temperature climbed to around 20 degrees Celsius,  the 36-year-old, who ran sub-three-minute times for all but one  kilometre until the 35th, started to struggle.

‘THIS IS BAD’

“This was not marathon weather. I am OK but in the last few  kilometres I was very tired,” he said.

“The problem started after 33 km. Maybe I pushed too much. I  was trying to push but the last five kilometres I was tired and  I could not push any more,”  added Gebrselassie, who wants to  run the marathon at the 2012 London Olympics.

“What I learned today is to break the marathon world record  the temperature must be under or up to 17 degrees.”
He added: “After 33, my mind told my body, ‘This is bad’. I  learned today the marathon really starts after 35 kilometres.”

Gebrselassie has twice won Olympic gold over 10,000m and won  four consecutive world athletics championships gold medals over  the distance.

Fellow Ethiopian Atsede Habtamu Besuye won the women’s race  in a time of 2:24:47.