Gebrselassie to go after World Record at adidas Boston Indoor Games
Former 3000 indoors record holder wants record back.

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Posted Wednesday, 21 January, 2004

BOSTON, Massachusetts – Haile Gebrselassie, who has owned at least 16 World Records in his career, wants one of them back: the 3000 meters indoors. He’ll go after it at the adidas Boston Indoor Games on Jan. 31.

“One thing is for sure, if I want to win a third gold medal at the 10,000 meters I will have to work hard on my speed. A 3000-meter indoor race is a perfect tool to test my speed,” said Gebrselassie. While declining to make any predictions, he added: “I am confident to run a fast race. My aim is always to do something special.”

The legendary Ethiopian, who also has two Olympic gold medals (10,000 meters) and nine World Championship titles to his credit, had the 3000m World Record until Daniel Komen broke it (7:24.90) in 1998. Gebrselassie currently holds the WR at both 5000m (12:39.36) and 10,000m (26:22.75) outdoors, as well as 2 miles (8:04.69) indoors and 10K (27:02) on the roads.

Several other athletes stand a chance of setting new World, American or National marks at the meet, which in eight years has been the site of three World Records, seven American Records and seven other National marks.

• Gail Devers, three-time Olympic gold medalist, has her sights set on her own indoor American record (7.74) in the 60m hurdles.
• Derartu Tulu, Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar will go after the 5000m WR (14:47.25) set by Gabriela Szabo in 1998. Tulu is a two-time Olympic gold medalist at 10,000 meters and Dibaba, her younger cousin, is the reigning World Champion at 5000m outdoors.
• His own 1000m AR (2:17.86), set at this meet in 2002, will be the target of David Krummenacker, the reigning 800m World Indoor champion.
• Stacy Dragila, the 2000 Olympic gold medalist, will take aim at her AR (15 feet, 8.25 inches) in the pole vault.
• The 27-year-old AR at 600m (1:15.80 by Chip Jenkins, 1987) is being targeted by Joey Woody, 2003 World Championship silver medalist at the 400m hurdles.

The ninth-annual adidas Boston Indoor Games will be held at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center at Roxbury Community College, 1350 Tremont St., Boston, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., and will be broadcast live on ESPN2 from 6-7 p.m. The meet will again be the first stop on USA Track & Field’s Indoor Golden Spike Tour. Tickets, which for the first time are expected to sell out before the event, are available on-line at www.BostonIndoorGames.com or by calling 617-536-7030.

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