DUBAI, Jan 18: Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie won the Dubai Marathon on Friday and prize money of 250,000 dollars, although he failed to beat the world record time of 2hr 04min 26sec he set in Berlin in September.

His failure by 27 seconds to better that record meant Gebreselassie, a former double Olympic 10,000m gold medallist, missed out on a bonus of one million dollars.

Kenyan duo Isaac Macharia and Sammi Korir netted 100,000 and 50,000 dollars respectively after finishing in second and third positions behind Gebrelassie on the flat course around the streets of Dubai.

There was an Ethiopian cleansweep of the podium in the women’s race, with Birhane Adere finishing first in 2:22:42 to also scoop the winner’s pot of 250,000 dollars.

Adere, a two-time Chicago Marathon winner who has one world gold and two silvers over 10,000m, also missed out on the women’s world record currently held by Britain’s Paula Radcliffe.

Results:

Men: 1 Haile Gebreselassie (ETH) 2:04:53; 2 Isaac Macharia (KEN) 2:07:16; 3 Sammi Korir (KEN) 2:08:01.

Women: 1 Birhane Adere (ETH) 2:22:42; 2 Bezunesh Bekele (ETH) 2:23:09; 3 Askale Tafa Magarsa (ETH) 2:23:23.—AFP