JOE caught up with the greatest long distance runner of all time Haile Gebrselassie at the launch of the new adidas BOOST runner.
Haile Gebrselassie is a bit of a legend. The Ethiopian runner has two Olympic Gold medals over 10,000 metres and four world titles. He won the Berlin Marathon on four occasions times, three of them in succession.
Gebrselassi has broken 61 records in his home country of Ethiopia, while he has set 27 world records. Yes, that’s right, 27 world records.
In short, he’s the best long distance runner that’s ever lived.
And he’s f*cking sound.
Gebrselassie shook hands with JOE and handed us a pair of Adidas’ new BOOST trainers and told us we’d instantly be faster when we put them on. Who are we to argue with the great man?
We figured we should first ask him about the shoe.
Before this, what was the biggest move forward in running technology in your time?
My previous shoes were the Adizero, they were also good. But you can’t compare. This is different, it’s amazing. I checked between the two – I put an old shoe on one foot and the BOOST on the other. There’s a big difference.
So how fast would you have gone in Berlin when you broke two hours four minutes?
A minute faster. Seriously. Every step you get advantage – a little bit forward. When you hit the ground, it gives you more energy, more space in front. For elite athlete’s it’s a big advantage, but for joggers as well.
Will we ever see a sub two hour marathon?
Not very soon. Right now, I think 2.03 flat or lower, but a sub 2 hour marathon is a little time away.
Finally, how can Irish athletics get back to the heyday of Treacy and Coghlan?
Ireland has had many, many great runners. But Sonia O’Sullivan was the last great one. I haven’t seen any others since.
I think there is one missing thing around the world. Today, there are a lot of technologies – games, videos, different things. Instead of playing outside, kids are playing inside all the time. I think that is a disadvantage of our youngsters. In my time, I had a lot of games outside, but today, my kids, are inside all the time. This is a problem around the world. I think it is important to encourage children to play together, instead of playing with computers, and the athlete’s will improve.
Put it this way, nature is key. What is the difference between an artificial flower and a natural flower? Which is best? Natural. That’s what they play, artificial. Let them go out and play something.
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