TNT Sports
Haile says no to Helsinki
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Published 20/05/2005 at 15:56 GMT+1
Haile Gebrselassie has ruled out running in August's world championships as he focusses solely on the marathon. The four-time world 10,000m champion bade farewell to the track at last summer's Athens Olympics and insisted he will not return to compete in
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"I'm not going to run any more major championship races on the track," Gebrselassie said. "I might run just one more track race this year, but now I want to concentrate on the marathon distance."
The Ethiopian had been due to run the London marathon in April before an Achilles injury reduced him to the role of starter for the elite women's race.
Gebrselassie, who also won two Olympic golds over 10km before a fifth-placed finish in his track swansong in Greece, made his 42.2km debut finishing third place in the British capital and is due to run there in the coming two years.
But he has still to decide where else he will take on athletics' most gruelling challenge, with flat and fast Berlin in September, and high-profile Chicago and Boston in October and November respectively all potential runs.
"I will be speaking with my manager in a few days' time when we might make the decision," said Gebrselassie. "But where it will be, I don't know. It could be in Europe or the United States."
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