NAIROBI, April 21: Kenya’s former marathon world record holder Paul Tergat said on Monday he would not compete at the Beijing Olympics due to a lack of fitness.

“I’m not fit enough for the Olympics,” Tergat told a news conference, saying it was time for younger runners to shine.“We senior athletes have to give the youth a chance and you don’t do it if you compete against them,” said the former five-time world cross country champion, who was an Olympic 10,000 metres silver medallist in 1996 and 2000.

Tergat, 38, missed the London marathon earlier this month for similar fitness concerns.

He held the marathon record from 2003 until last September, when it was shattered by Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie in Berlin.—Reuters