Haile Gebrselassie's Olympic hopes took a blow as he was beaten by Michael Kipyego at the Tokyo marathon.
Marathon great in danger of missing out on London 2012
Haile Gebrselassie's Olympic marathon chances took a blow as he was beaten into fourth place behind Michael Kipyego at the Tokyo marathon on Sunday.
The Ethiopian great broke clear of the pack but faded in the dying stages as Kenya's former 3,000m steeplechase specialist Kipyego took over inside the final four kilometres.
Kipyego went on to claim his first victory over the maximum distance in a time of two hours, seven minutes and 37 seconds.
Gebrselassie, 38, could only manage a time of 2:08:17 in what was a blow to his chances of making it to London 2012 with three Ethiopians running under 2:05 at last month's Dubai marathon.
Despite the result though, the two-time Olympic and four-time world 10,000m champion is still defiant about his London 2012 chances despite one of his worst races ever.
Fantastic
"I could run another marathon in two weeks," said Gebrselassie. "I felt fantastic for the first 30 kilometers but then I had some problems at the end of the race.
"The last 5km was the worst I've ever run."
The Ethiopian held the marathon record at 2:03:59 until Kenyan Patrick Makau lowered that mark to 2:03:38 in Berlin last year.
Gebrselassie has struggled in his last few marathon attempts, as he failed to finish in New York in 2010 and had to pull out of Tokyo last year because of injury.
The victorious Kipyego paid tribute to Gebrselassie's standing as a marathon great.
"Today I won but you can never compare anyone with Haile," said the 28-year-old. "He's the king of the marathon. I salute him."
