2:06:09

The Guardian reports

Haile Gebrselassie failed to lower his own world record when he was hampered by a niggling back injury at the Dubai marathon. The Ethiopian had promised another vintage performance but he was clearly struggling throughout the race and missed his 18-month-old world record of 2hr 3min 59sec by a considerable margin.

The world's greatest-ever distance runner revealed afterwards he had been troubled by a back injury, which he picked up when relaxing before the race the previous evening. "I was watching TV and I slipped into an awkward position which meant I had to sleep in a different way," Gebrselassie said after a restless night in bed.

"I normally sleep on my stomach but I had to sleep on my back. When I woke up I found my disc was troublesome and in a bad way and I still cannot bend."

The 36-year-old consulted his manager and physiotherapist but took the decision to still start the race where he was also seeking a third successive victory in the world's richest marathon with total prize money of $2m.

Gebrselassie, who went on to win in 2:06.09 and a first prize of $250,000, admitted he was a little relieved the challenge to better the mark he set in Berlin had fallen apart so early given his problem.

He admitted: "If the pacemakers had ran faster I would have had no choice – I would have had to run with them."

Gebrselassie reduced to kilometre splits of only 3min 2sec and allowed Chala Dechase, a former Amsterdam marathon runner-up, to come on his shoulder just after 33km and his fresher-looking countryman appeared to be on course for a shock victory. However Gebrselassie, his face twisted in pain, found hidden reserves and with another injection of pace, finally got clear of Dechase to clock up a hat-trick of successes with a winning margin of 24sec.

Eshetu Wendimu made it a clean sweep for Ethiopia when third for the second successive year in 2:06.46.

The Ethiopian pair Mamitu Daska and Aberu Shewaye had a much closer encounter in the women's race, the former eventually triumphing by eight seconds in 2:24.18. Kenya's Helena Kirop prevented another clean sweep by their African rivals, finishing third in 2:24.54.