Haile Gebrselassie - Middle career, Honors, Personal bests

Athlete, born in Arssi, Ethiopia. The dominant long-distance runner of the 1990s, he was four times world champion (1993, 1995, 1997, 1999) and twice Olympic champion (1996, 2000) at 10 000 m. He broke his first world record in 1994, reducing the 5000 m record to 12 min 56·96 and had set a total of 15 world records by 2000. Undefeated outdoors at distances between 1500 m and 1000 m in 1997 and 1998 seasons, he was International Athletics Federation Athlete of the Year in 1998.

Olympic medal record
Men's athletics
Gold	1996 Atlanta	10,000m
Gold	2000 Sydney	10,000m

Haile Gebrselassie (Ge'ez haylē gebre silassē; In 1997, Gebrselassie came fresh off his third 10K world championship gold medal to outkick Komen in another Zurich classic on August 13th, breaking his 5,000 meter world record with a time of 12:41.86 in which he covered the final 200 meters in 26.8 seconds.

Middle career

The next year, 1998, saw Gebrselassie lowering the indoor world records for 2,000 and 3,000 meters, enjoying success outdoors in taking back both the 5,000 and 10,000 meter world records, as well as earning a share in the Golden League jackpot for winning all of his races in the Golden League series that summer. On the track, he won a 1,500/3000 meter double at the world indoor track championships, defended his outdoor world track championships 10,000 meter title, and remained undefeated in all his races (which ranged from the 1,500 up to 10,000 meters). According to the IAAF, "[n]ot only was this split the fastest closing 5,000m in the championships 10,000m (the previous record was 13:12.12, recorded in Atlanta), but it was also the fastest 5,000m in a global championships surpassing the 12:58.13 Salah Hissou recorded when he won the 5,000m in Sevilla'99." Field Championship 5,000 meter medalists (including Bekele) all ran faster than the second 5,000 meter split in the previous week's 10,000 meters.) "The difference between the closing 5,000m splits (12:57.24) and the 5,000m World record (12:39.36) was 17.88 seconds, which is a record.

Gebrselassie started 2006 positively by shattering the world half marathon record by 21 seconds, recording a time of 58 minutes and 55 seconds on January 15th.

Honors

1993 1993 World Championships in Athletics 10,000 metre gold medal 5,000 metre silver medal 1993 IAAF African Athletics Championships 5,000 metre silver medal 10,000 metre bronze medal 1994 IAAF World Cross Country Championships - bronze medal 1995 1995 World Championships in Athletics 10,000m gold medal 1996 1996 Summer Olympics 10,000m gold medal 1997 1997 World Championships in Athletics 10,000m gold medal 1997 IAAF World Indoor Championships 3,000m gold medal 1999 1999 World Championships in Athletics 10,000m gold medal 1999 IAAF World Indoor Championships 1,500m gold medal 3,000m gold medal 2000 2000 Summer Olympics 10,000m gold medal 2001 2001 World Championships in Athletics 10,000m bronze medal 2001 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships winner 2003 2003 IAAF World Indoor Championships 3,000m gold medal 2003 World Championships in Athletics 10,000m silver medal

Personal bests

Outdoors

Distance	Mark	Date	Location
1,500 m	3:33.73	1999-06-06	Stuttgart
Mile	3:52.39	1999-06-27	Gateshead
3,000 m	7:25.09	1998-08-28	Bruxelles
Two miles	8:01.08	1997-05-31	Hengelo
5,000 m	12:39.36	1998-06-13	Helsinki
10,000 m	26:22.75	1998-06-01	Hengelo
10 km (road)	27:02	2002-12-11	Ad-Dawhah
15 km (road)	41:38	2001-11-11	Nijmegen
Ten miles (road)	44:24	2005-09-04	Tilburg
20 km (road)*	55:48	2006-01-15	Phoenix
Half marathon	58:55	2006-01-15	Phoenix
25 km (road)	1:11:37	2006-03-12	Alphen aan den Rijn (not recognised by IAAF)
Marathon	2:05:56	2006-09-24	Berlin

*en route to half-marathon

Indoors

Distance	Mark	Date	Location
1,500 m	3:31.76	1998-02-01	Stuttgart
2,000 m	4:52.86	1998-02-15	Birmingham
3,000 m	7:26.15	1998-01-25	Karlsruhe
Two miles	8:04.69	2003-02-21	Birmingham
5,000 m	12:50.38	1999-02-14	Birmingham