<div><p>Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie, the marathon world record-holder and a two-time Olympic 10,000-meter champion, will race in the New York Half-Marathon in March, race organizers announced Wednesday.</p><p>The 36-year-old long distance legend last competed in a US event in 2007, when he won the New York Half-Marathon in a race-record 59 minutes, 24 seconds. Gebrselassie will seek a 20,000-dollar top prize in the 100,000-dollar event.</p><p>"I?m very excited about going back to New York," Gebrselassie said. "I got such a warm welcome when I ran the Half-Marathon in 2007. I?m sure it will be a wonderful event again and I?m looking forward to it."</p><p>Gebrselassie, who set the world marathon record of 2:03:59 at the 2008 Berlin Marathon, will try to win his third consecutive Dubai Marathon title on Friday.</p><p>He has also won four times at Berlin as well as in Amsterdam in 2005 and Fukuoka, Japan, in 2006.</p><p>Over the 13.1-mile half-marathon distance, Gebrselassie has won nine of 10 career starts.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=67372412&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

Copyright 2010  <a href="http://www.afp.com/english/links/?pid=copyright">AFP Global Edition</a></div></div>