Twice Olympic 10,000 metres champion Haile Gebrselassie broke the world one-hour record at the Ostrava grand prix yesterday, running 21.285 km. The 34-year-old surpassed Mexican Arturo Barrios's previous mark of 21.101 km, set in La Fleche, France, on March 30, 1991.

"At around the halfway point I felt I could get the record," a smiling Gebrselassie said at the finish line. "I felt comfortable the whole way."

On the way to the new mark, Gebrselassie also broke the 20-km world record time of 56 mins 55.60 secs, set by Barrios during his run in 1991. The Ethiopian clocked 56:25.98.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.