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Haile Gebrselassie’s disappointing performance and non-performance at the recent Beijing Olympics is now ancient history. Ethiopia’s most celebrated endurance runner broke his own world record by nearly one second per mile Sunday, Sep. 28, when he won the Berlin Marathon in 2 hours, 3 minutes and 59 seconds. Gebrselassie didn’t run in the Olympic marathon because of Beijing’s polluted air, and he finished sixth in the 10,000 meters.

But while winning the Berlin Marathon for the third straight year on Sunday, Gebrselassie averaged about 4 minutes and 44 seconds per mile on the flat course.

The 35-year-old Gebrselassie set the previous world marathon mark of 2:04:26 last year at the Berlin Marathon. He also won the event in 2006 in 2:05.56.

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The confirmation of Lance Armstrong’s return to cycling brought immediate reaction from cyclists and others gathered at the Tour of Missouri.

Lance Armstrong

I’m in Missouri reporting on the event for several news organizations, and here are some of the reactions I compiled:

Mark Cavendish of Great Britain, winner of the first two stages and the race leader:

“I’ve never had the opportunity to race against Lance; I don’t know different it would be, When I was growing up and starting cycling that was when he (Armstrong) was winning the Tour. So, yes, it’s quite special. And I know (teammate) George Hincapie rode seven tours with him, so that’s impressive.

Chann McRae, Armstrong’s boyhood friend, former cycling pro and team director of Garmin-Chipotle, one of the teams in the race:

“One thing I’ve learned over the years with Lance, if he commits don’t count him out it to get results. He’ll be 37, that’s not that old. After you retire and you hang out for a while, you see what it’s like in normal society and you start to think about how fun it was when you were a bike racer. That’s a lot of adrenaline every single day. So that’s why I think a lot of people come back.”

Steve Hegg, Olympic gold and silver medalist track cycling in 1984, a former national pro road titlist and former Armstrong teammate:

“Michael Jordan made a comeback, didn’t he? Look at what he (Armstrong) has been doing the last few years. He’s run marathons and he’s lived the South Beach and Hollywood lifestyle.

“You know what? Now, he’s coming back to his people. Look at this sport, eventually everyone somehow gets sucked back into it. Maybe this is how he will launch his new bike line, something that hasn’t even been talked about yet.”