BEIJING - Marathon world record-holder Haile Gebrselassie regrets pulling out of the 42-km race at the Olympics over fears that Beijing's air pollution would damage his health.
"I'm surprised. What do you expect from me? I was here in February, I didn't see no blue sky," the Ethiopian runner told Reuters on Monday in China's capital, where the sun was shining in a slightly hazy sky.
"Since I came here everything is perfect. They should tell us," he added with a laugh.
Asked if he was now sorry not to be running in next Sunday's marathon, he chuckled again and said: "Don't push me. Yes."
Gebrselassie, a 35-year-old who suffers from asthma, announced in March that he would not participate in the marathon and called on China to deal with Beijing's pollution problem, saying it would be a hazard to athletes.
International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge said last year that endurance events such as the marathon or long-distance cycling races could be rescheduled if efforts to clear Beijing's polluted skies were unsuccessful.
As it turned out, the opening days of the Games were marred by smoggy skies but the weather has cleared for the second week.
"It's really good for everybody, good for all … to keep such clean air, that's fantastic," Gebrselassie said.
Gebrselassie ran in the men's 10,000m in Beijing on Sunday, an event in which he has twice won an Olympic gold medal. He finished in sixth place, behind fellow Ethiopians Kenenisa Bekele and Sileshi Sihine, who took gold and silver respectively.
"Getting sixth in 10,000, it was not bad," he said.
"The only problem I had yesterday … was just the last 250 meters, the last 300 meters. I have no more sprint. My training is mostly for a marathon."
He said he may return to the 10,000 meters and is also keen to run in the marathon at London's 2012 Olympics.
-By Vivi Lin Reuters. Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Ed Osmond
Email to Friend
|
Add a comment | 
Print This Post
Haile don’t worry you will be participating in London marathon in 2012 with all paradigm of the new government of Ethiopia that will eventually come by kicking the butts out of the Weyane criminal groups with the effort of Ginbot 7 and others who have a bright clear and transparent political ideology that is surrounded by Ethiopian enthusiastic phase. Those oppositions who are organized based on ethnicity should have a clear and transparent political agenda that can bring real democracy to Ethiopia with the bridge of fair and democratic election. Otherwise if the so called fffff’s are organized to create another TPLF who had been organized based on ethnicity but didn’t satisfy either the will of the Ethiopian people nor the interest of that specific ethnicity is worthless to the Ethiopian people.
Ethiopia will have a new government in the year 2012 and will have so many track and field runners for London Olympics.
Death to weyane members and supporters!!!!
August 18th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Hagos Araya,why in da hell you start bout Haile and jump into politics ?
August 18th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Elias,
Do you know why the Woyane mouth piece Walta did not post the olympic victory news? The are not happy. They do not like any thing that is not woyane.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Lulataw
You questioned why Hagos Araya jumps into politics from discussion about Haile?
Well, my friend everything revolves around politics. It is politics that govern all of us including you. You have a right to admire the Weyane thugs, criminals and, as far as I am concerned, anti-Ethiopia. We don't like the messing up of our flag as the Adwa boys have done. We don't like parading our national (albeit adulterated by Weyane) on a donkey, I mean donkey like ahya or adghi if that is what you understand. So, while the discussion on Haile may not be directly related to politics, politics kicks in on the back door for that is what is the DAILY driving force and everything else is secondary.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Yenatulij,I don't want to put myself in your level .Your nasty comment invited me to be even with you .But unlike you I had a second thought.Means I'm not ready for the tit for tat response.Indeed ,that is true ,everything revolves around politics.But how about staying in the context,How about being cool headed.As for woyane,we should thank them they didn't come up with an all Tigryan Olympic team.After Tigrynizing eveything in Ethiopia it seems sport is their next plan.If you watched the the Olympic opening event ,it seems that is where the woyanes are heading .How bout changing Kenenisa by Hagos ? How bout changing Haile by Araya ? That makes it an all TPLF team by 2012.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Walta information center or Balta (bowalta) information center ?
August 19th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
You won't find this story anywhere in the US media. Every media outlet in the US carried the story when Haile Gebrselassie dropped out because of the pollution, but not a single one ever carried this story. The US media wants Americans to hate China, and they did their best to portray Beijing as a city smothered in smog. Unfortunately for them, the scientific data doesn't support this view. That's why there were hundreds of articles about the pollution in Beijing before the Olympics, but there are almost none that admit the truth.
Sadly, Haile Gebrselassie became a major source of anti-Chinese propaganda in the West. Most likely, he was himself a victim of propaganda. He said "…they should tell us," but the Olympic organizers tried, but nobody was listening. Even studying the actual scientific data from the previous years would have shown that the pollution in Beijing is not nearly as bad as people are told to believe.
September 2nd, 2008 at 7:58 pm