Haile Gebreselassie justified his status as clear pre-race favourite to win the 19th Granollers half marathon in 1 hour, 1 minute and 33 seconds, the quickest time in the world so far this year. The Kenyan Gladys Cherono won the women´s event with a time of 1.13:26.

"The Emperor," whose achievements include Olympic 10,000m gold medals in Atlanta and Sydney, four world 10,000m titles, and who broke the world half marathon record when he won the world title in 2000, finished just 26 seconds slower than the current world record held by the Kenyan athlete, Philip Kirui, since 2000.

After the race, Gebreselassie told journalists that, "This race is one of those I have chosen to prepare for the London marathon. I didn´t want to push myself too hard because I´m not yet 100%. Granollers is a tough course and I felt okay. I didn´t need to force myself because I was out on my own from the sixth or seventh kilometre."

When asked about his next targets, he said, "I´ve never set limits for myself. Of course, beating Tergat´s record is one of my targets, but not just now. I´ve enjoyed the experience of running outside stadiums. It´s a great thing for a distance runner because the crowd is so close. They support you throughout the race and give you much more energy than in a closed arena. It´s very exciting."

The runner revealed that he is taking his preparations for the London marathon on the 17th April very seriously, "the best athletes in the world are going to be there, and I want to compete to win. I hope to be right in every aspect, and do as well as possible. To achieve this, my preparations are quite intensive," he said.