Running: Billed as the Best, Gebrselassie Holds True to Form

Tuesday, August 07, 2007 - 05:40 PM

Haile Gebrselassie stormed out of hilly Central Park and separated from his two competitors a few blocks down Seventh Avenue.

When he reached the strangely serene Times Square at 7:35 yesterday morning, Gebrselassie — an Ethiopian who is considered the world’s greatest distance runner — was alone and more than halfway to victory in the NYC Half-Marathon. He allowed himself to look up and around.

“Yesterday I was there, it was many cars, it was very crowded,” Gebrselassie said after the race. “Today — wow — only spectators, and the road was open.

“Ah,” he added, laughing, “that’s what I want.”

It seemed as if New York City’s most cacophonous space was shut down to make way for his parade.

Gebrselassie, 34, had not lost a half-marathon. Running in New York for the first time and racing the 13.1-mile distance for the eighth time, he kept that record going.

Just before the eight-mile mark, Gebrselassie broke away from Abdi Abdirahman of the United States and Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya. Gebrselassie then ran gracefully down the West Side Highway to finish in Battery Park City in 59 minutes 24 seconds.

“I’m so happy,” said Gebrselassie, who shattered the course record, established last year in the inaugural race, by 1:58. He ran the second-fastest half-marathon on United States soil, and his time was the second fastest of his career. Gebrselassie continues to succeed in every distance from 5 kilometers to the marathon.

“Right after the park, I said, O.K., this is my race,” Gebrselassie said, recalling how he quickly countered Abdirahman’s surge in the opening blocks of Seventh Avenue and took advantage of Cheruiyot’s ill-fated water stop.

As Abdirahman crossed the finish line in 1:00:29 to take second place, 1:05 behind Gebrselassie, he slapped his head in frustration. Abdirahman surged a little too early, he would lament. Gebrselassie quickly recovered and later said Abdirahman had told him to go.

“What do you mean, ‘Go’?” Gebrselassie said he wondered. He did not hesitate. “He ask me to go, I am going to go.”

Abdirahman said, “I knew he was the greatest, but I’m not afraid of him.”

Cheruiyot, the reigning champion of the Boston and Chicago Marathons, finished third in 1:00:58. He was taken to a hospital from the finish line because he said he felt weak and confused; he was released about an hour later, said his agent, Federico Rosa.

“He’s fine,” Rosa said, adding that the trip to the hospital was only a precaution because Cheruiyot sustained head and back injuries in October, when he slipped at the finish line in Chicago.

The men’s race may have had only brief drama, but the women’s race was suspenseful until the end. Hilda Kibet of Kenya outkicked the defending champion, Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, finishing in 1:10:32, only 1.15 seconds ahead. Nina Rillstone of New Zealand was third, 2.6 seconds back.

Of the 9,920 runners who finished (9,960 started), no one was more embraced at the end than Gebrselassie. Fervent Ethiopian fans, wearing the green, yellow and red of the country’s flag, waved flags and serenaded him with “Haile, Haile,” written by the Ethiopian singer-songwriter Teddy Afro.

Gebrselassie patiently posed for pictures, signed copies of his biography, “The Greatest: The Haile Gebrselassie Story,” kissed his fans, did interviews and ran through the crowds, along with two bodyguards, to the awards ceremony.

Running alone must have seemed like a respite from the celebrity fishbowl. “Oh no, it looks like peace,” he said, “but it’s war.”

First he contended with the blistering pace Cheruiyot set in Central Park that left many behind, including a sleep-deprived Hendrick Ramaala of South Africa, the 2004 New York City Marathon winner, who finished 12th. Gebrselassie was also feeling the effects of jet lag; he had been awake since midnight Saturday. “He’s in better shape than all of us,” Ramaala said.

With a little more than three miles to go, Gebrselassie had become a speck on the horizon to Abdirahman.

“It’s embarrassing, but at the same time, you got to go home and train harder,” said Abdirahman, a native of Somalia and a United States citizen since 1999. He is a favorite to make the United States Olympic team in the marathon; the trials are Nov. 3 in New York.

Gebrselassie will be hoping to break the world marathon record on Sept. 30 in Berlin, where he is the defending champion, so he will not be making his debut in the New York City Marathon on Nov. 4. “But 2008 is a possibility,” he said.

He is a two-time Olympic champion in the 10,000 meters, has set 22 world records and has won three marathons. What makes him a champion? “I’m never satisfied,” he said.

Even yesterday, with his half-marathon streak secure and with three miles to go, his mind jumped to the next finish line.

“When I knew I was going to win,” he said, “then I start to think about Berlin.”