Athletics: Emperor is still highly ambitious

There is not very much of Haile Gebrselassie. As the 5ft 3in Ethiopian stepped forward to receive the "performance of the meeting" award at the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham on Friday night, he had to crane his neck to watch the 5ft 4in Svetlana Feofanova attempt to propel herself 15ft 9.75in above the pole vault take-off box in the National Indoor Arena. Feofanova dislodged the bar at 4.82m but had already cleared 4.77m, her second world indoor-record height in three weeks, her seventh in 13 months. The little Muscovite has made metrically inching progress, advancing one centimetre at a time. The tiny Gebrselassie has not been so restrained in his raising of the distance running bar.

In nine years of high-speed endurance racing he has taken the 5,000m world record from 12min 58.39sec to 12:39.36, and the 10,000m record from 26:52.23 to 26:22.75. On Friday night he took Haylu Mekonnen's world indoor two miles record, 8:09.66, and tore it to shreds. Circling the 200m track at just over 30sec a lap, for 16 consecutive circuits, he crossed the finish line in 8:04.69. He had covered the first mile in 4:03.1, the second in 4.01.6. It was Gebrselassie's 17th world record on indoor tracks, outdoor tracks or on the roads. Two months short of his 30th birthday the man known in his homeland as "The Emperor" was back to his imperious, high-tempo metronomic running best.

There had been those who suspected his trail-blazing days might be behind him. It was just that the world had not been accustomed to seeing Gebrselassie, the supreme king of all the distance-running greats, trailing in the wake of would-be heirs. In Edmonton 18 months ago he lost his world championship 10,000m crown, finishing third behind Charles Kim-athai and Assefa Mezgebu. In the London Marathon last April he was third again, behind Khalid Khannouchi and Paul Tergat. In Edmonton, though, he was running his first race after an Achilles tendon operation, and in London he suffered the calf injury that was to wipe out his 2002 summer track season.

If last year was an annus horribilis for the regal Gebrselassie, it was still a good one by any standards. He did, after all, run his marathon in 2hr 6min 35sec, the sixth fastest in history – and this from a runner who stands second to Hicham El Guerrouj on the world all-time rankings for 1500m indoors (with a time of 3min 31.76sec). No other foot-racer in history has been blessed with such a remarkable range of ability, yet even Gebrselassie had wondered whether he would ever push back the record barriers again.

"Yes, I had my doubts," he confessed late on Friday night. "I thought maybe I'm a little too old. I did not expect something like this. But now I know I can run more faster." In the aftermath of his epic duel with the Kenyan Tergat at the Sydney Olympics, Gebrselassie was reluctant to shift his horizons towards the marathon because he felt he could run "more faster" at 10,000m.

The same belief was returning to him in the aftermath of his Birmingham run. "Well, that is what I'm thinking now, after I break this record," he confided. "Yeah, that's possible." The record, 26min 22.75sec, has stood since 1998 as the jewel in Gebrselassie's running crown. His long-held ambition has been to take it below the 26min barrier. That might be beyond even his mighty scope, but on the form he displayed on Friday there will be more record-breaking days to come. And more gold-medal winning days too.

Gebrselassie returns to Birmingham on 14 March to challenge for the 3,000m title at the world indoor championships. His principal aim for the year, though, is the 10,000m at the outdoor world championships in Paris in August. Having lost the title in Edmonton in 2001, he is determined to claim it for a fifth time. "That is why I am concentrating on the track: because of my loss at the last world championships," he said. "I will try to win my title one more time. I will try."

Beyond that, a third Olympic 10,000m crown beckons in Athens next year. There is also the matter of the marathon. Conquering the ultimate distance-running challenge remains unfinished business for Gebrselassie. His second serious crack at the distance is likely to be later this year, probably on the Chicago course where Paula Radcliffe broke the women's world record last October. His first marathon, long before his senior debut in London, was as a 15-year-old in Addis Ababa in 1988. He ran a very respectable 2hr 48min.

Fifteen years on, the pride of Ethiopia is still running, and still gathering momentum. On Friday he was asked how long he might be able to keep going. The query drew a wry smile. "That is also my question, you know," the highly affable Gebrselassie replied. "As long as I can handle the performance I will keep going. I have no plan yet to stop running." The king of distance has, however, given thought to his life beyond the final finish line. He intends to become a politician in his homeland. His ultimate goal in life is to ease the famine-stricken plight of his fellow countrymen. "A political post brings with it a lot of powers and I can use some of it to help my people," Gebrselassie said. "They have been suffering for a long time now. I want to do something to alleviate it." It will be a big challenge, the biggest of all for the little Ethiopian with the giant talent.