Berlin, Germany - Haile Gebrselassie, the defending champion, will return to the 34th real,- Berlin Marathon on 30 September 2007. The race boasts 40,000 runners, and belongs to the World Marathon Majors (WMM) series.

Last year Haile Gebrselassie won the race in the fastest time of the year of 2:05:56.

“With Haile Gebrselassie we have signed one of the best runners of all times. We are delighted that after his impressive performance last year Haile has again chosen the real,- Berlin Marathon for his fall marathon race,“ said Mark Milde.

Gebrselassie dominated long distance track running for years. He was 10,000m Olympic Champion twice (1996 and 2000). At the World Championships in Athletics he won gold medals at 10,000m four times in a row (1993, 1995, 1997, 1999), and took the 2001 World Half Marathon title too. The 34-year-old has set 21 World records in his career so far. At the Olympic Games in Athens 2004 he had to be content with fifth place in the 10,000m final due to an injury. After that Gebrselassie decided to concentrate on road running, especially on the marathon.

Despite 2:06 runs when taking victories in Amsterdam (2005) and Fukuoka (2006), and a third place in London (2002), the highlight of his marathon career so far was his victory in Berlin in 2006. Clocking 2:05:56 hours he became the fifth fastest marathon runner of all time. He missed the World record of his big rival Paul Tergat by just 61 seconds. The Kenyan had triumphed with 2:04:55 in Berlin in 2003.

The real,- BERLIN-MARATHON has 35,000 registrations so far. That means that only 5.000 bibs are left. As last year the limit is set at 40,000 runners. 

Information and online registration at: www.berlin-marathon.com