Gebrselassie misses out on record and Adere wins the women's race
CNN International - January 18, 2008

Berhane Adere

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.

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 ...