It was only the rain of confetti that slowed Haile Gebrselassie in Trier’s Bitburger New Year’s Eve race on Thursday afternoon (31).

The great Ethiopian dominated the 8 km race which took place on a one kilometre loop course in front of an estimated 20,000 spectators. In rainy conditions Gebrselassie clocked 22:23 while Russia’s Yelena Zadorozhnaya took the 5 km women’s race in 15:49. The 20th edition of Germany’s best quality “Silvesterlauf” saw a record entry of 2228 runners competing in various events.

During the fourth of eight laps Gebrselassie surged away from Kenyans Shadrack Lagat and Paul Kipkorir. With a 4 km split time of 11:08 the 36 year-old Ethiopian, who used the race as his final test for the Dubai Marathon on 22 January, he was on course for breaking the 12-year-old event record of 22:21 set by Kenyan Isaac Kariuki in 1997.

But when he started passing lapped runners in the rainy conditions and a partly slippery surface, he lost some speed. Additionally the confetti thrown by spectators briefly caused a problem.

Shadrack Lagat: 'Running against Haile is like fighting with a lion'

“The atmosphere was really great. It felt almost as if I was running in a stadium,” Gebrselassie said. “But I got some confetti into my eyes so I had to wipe it out.

“I thought that I would be still well in time for the course record so I slowed slightly on the final lap. I was surprised when I found out later that I just missed it.”

“Running against Haile is like fighting with a lion,“ said Lagat, the runner-up in 22:48. The Kenyan bravely held on to Gebrselassie during the first half before losing contact.

Kipkorir took third while Germany’s  Arne Gabius was fourth (both with 23:19). Benjamin Kemboi (Kenya/23:21) and Carsten Schlangen (Germany/23:53) followed.

It was a much closer affair in the women’s race, where Zadorozhnaya used her finishing speed to take glory in Trier. Russia’s 5000m Olympic fourth placer from 2004 clocked 15:49 and beat her two African rivals,.18-year-old Ethiopian Emebeth Anteneh (15:51) and Kenya’s Caroline Chepkwony (15:54), who were second and third.

Ethiopia’s Almensh Belete just missed out on the podium (15:54) with Genet Yalew (Ethiopia/15:55) close behind. Not in peak form at this time of the year, German stars Sabrina Mockenhaupt (15:59) and Irina Mikitenko (16:16) took sixth and seventh respectively.

Jörg Wenig for the IAAF