HAILE Gebrselassie, the greatest long-distance runner in history, is Melbourne-bound — for the Great Australian Run, a 15-kilometre road race around the streets of Melbourne on November 30 — and with him, he will bring some food for thought for all those elite Australian sportsmen who reckon they do it tough to achieve success. To find out just what makes him tick, we did some research about the Ethiopian runner, who this month became the first man to break two hours four minutes for the marathon (and, in all, has broken 27 world records). This is what we found out:

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Italian Embassy Donates Sports Equipments to 17 Schools
The Daily Monitor (Addis Ababa)

NEWS
28 October 2008
Posted to the web 28 October 2008
Addis Ababa

The Italian Regione Lazio, COME2PLAY Project donated sport equipments to 17 Addis Ababa School Teams participating to “Youth Sport Training in Ethiopia” launched by the Minister of Youth and Sport on Saturday.

The Ethiopian Minister of Youth and Sport, the Italian Ambassador’s in Ethiopia, representatives from Addis Ababa University and from Addis Ababa Youth and Sport Bureau attended the event at Juventus Club here.

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Two local lawyers, Kathy Church of Sustainable Solutions and Sarah Armstrong of GE are holding a Coffee House fundraiser for Ethiopia that includes a silent auction and concert at the Gordon Best Theatre, 216 Hunter St. W., on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 7:30 p. m.

All of the ticket and silent auction proceeds will go to Ethiopia through the

Canadian charity Partners in the Horn of Africa to establish a group home for poor, rural young

women with academic promise to access post-secondary education opportunities.

Many of the young women have come

through the charity’s other programs for HIV orphans and school-support projects for elementary and high school students. The group home project needs $10,000 for the first year. For further information about the charity, visit www.partnersinthehorn.org

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Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia crossed the finish line at the Berlin Marathon on Sunday, setting a new world record.

Haile Gebrselassie smashed his marathon world record by 27 seconds, winning the Berlin Marathon in a city where he has had so much success. Gebrselassie, 35, of Ethiopia, took advantage of excellent conditions on a flat course to finish in 2hours, 3minutes, 59seconds. Despite an ailing calf, he shattered the mark he set in Berlin last year and became the first man to win this race three times. Gebrselassie thanked the crowd of about 1 million for helping him set his 26th world record. Gebrselassie first ran in Berlin in 2006 and clocked 2:05:56 before breaking the world record last year. In three years, he has improved nearly two minutes on his time. “Berlin is my lucky city,” Gebrselassie said. In the women’s race, Irina Mikitenko of Germany won in 2:19:19. She improved her personal best by more than four minutes to record the seventh-fastest time for a woman

Tsegaye Kebede comes from behind and wins Bronze medal in Men’s Marathon, Deriba Merga who was in the lead pack for most of the race finished 4th and Gashaw Asfaw finished 7th.

Kenya’s Wanjiru wins Kenya’s first ever Olympic gold medal in Marathon. Morocco finished second and takes the Silver.

World record-holder Haile Gebrselassie decided not to run the race because of concerns about air pollution.

BEIJING: Kenenisa Bekele made it a unique double Olympic long-distance double for Ethiopia on Saturday with relentless front-running that wore down everyone who dared to keep pace in the 5,000 meters.

Bekele gets Olympic long-distance double

In 30 degree C (86 degree F) heat, cutting through the muggiest of conditions at the Bird’s Nest, Bekele took over from his teammates with 2 kilometers to go an imposed such a punishing pace that he didn’t need an explosive finishing kick this time, just unmatched stamina.

His win by 30 meters over Eliud Kipchoge added to his 10,000 victory for the first double since Lasse Viren in Montreal 32 years ago.

And with Tirunesh Dibaba doing the same in the women’s distance races, it was the first long-distance sweep for one nation.

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Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba sprinted to gold in the slowest 5,000 metres race in four Olympics to become the first woman to win both long distance races at the same Games.

The 23-year-old world record holder won the 10,000m in the second fastest time a week ago but the early laps of Friday’s race more closely resembled the pace of the morning’s 50km walk.

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Now a member of the Ethiopian team for the Beijing Games intends to fight his way onto the podium, against overwhelming odds.

Molla Getachew is Ethiopia’s only Olympic boxer, an anomaly in a country known for its superstar distance runners. His opponents are the last in a long line of problems standing between him and a gold, including a lack of equipment, no professionals to train against and a disapproving mother.

But when the Beijing Games open in August, he will represent Ethiopia in the 112-lb. flyweight division, a weight class dominated by well-equipped fighters from Mexico, Thailand and Japan.

“I feel sad because I’m the only boxer representing my country at the Olympics,” said the 22-year-old, who spends four hours a day training at an airless, grimy gym in the Ethiopian capital.

Boxing is popular elsewhere in Africa - neighboring Kenya is full of boxing clubs and boasts several champions - but Ethiopia’s poverty makes the sport’s equipment inaccessible to many.

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