On Sunday, the Ethiopian great Gebreselassie is looking for fifth Berlin victory, whereas after the birth of his son, Radcliffe is running her first marathon.
Radcliffe stated, “Realistically, this will probably be my last Olympics and I really want to win a gold medal. The best preparation would be for this [marathon] to be the only one.”
The 37 year old world record holder said, “For that reason the [qualification] time needs to be ticked off.”
For the 2012 London Olympics, a qualifying time of two hours and 31 minutes have been set by the UK Athletics.
She stated, “It's been a long time since I ran a marathon, so I have a bit of fear.” Gebrselassie also said that clock is certainly a big priority, as he set a world record in the year 2008. Now, he is facing huge pressure of qualifying for the Ethiopian team for the upcoming 2012 Olympics.
The 38 year old double Olympic Champion at 10,000m stated, “The time is most important, not the win, because I have to qualify for the next Olympics.”
He further added, “It's a big challenge with the youngsters back home. If I don't run a good time they won't let me run in London. This is the best chance to get a good time.”
During the third of his four consecutive Berlin victories from 2006 and 2009, Gebrselassie set a world record time of 2:03.59.
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