Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie, a two-time Olympic 10,000m champion and former marathon world-record holder, retired from competitive running after the Great Manchester Run in Great Britain on Sunday.
Gebrselassie, 42, finished 16th in the 10,000m race in Manchester.
He previously briefly retired on Nov. 7, 2010, after dropping out of the New York City Marathon with a knee injury. Gebrselassie did not make the 2012 Ethiopian Olympic team but participated in the London Olympic Opening Ceremony as one of the Olympic Flag carriers, along with Muhammad Ali, among others.
Gebrselassie won arguably the greatest distance race in Olympic history in Sydney 2000, edging Kenyan Paul Tergat in the 10,000m by .09.
He also broke the marathon world record in Berlin in 2007 and 2008, holding the mark until 2011.
Talk of a sub-two-hour marathon
I will retire as a competitive runner, not as a runner, I will never stop running and will continu to be a running ambassador.
— Haile Gebrselassie (@HaileGebr) May 10, 2015
