 | | Ethiopia's great distance runner Haile Gebrselassie |
| During the Sonny Side of Sports show for January 15, 2009, "The Energetic" Andy Edwards previews Friday's Dubai Marathon in the United Arab Emirates. Ethiopian star Haile Gebrselassie will try to break his own world record (of 2:03:59) at the lucrative event. Organizers are offering a first-place prize of $250,000 to both the men's and women's winner. And if Haile can set another world record, he'll receive a bonus of $1 million.
Sonny has fond memories of meeting Haile at the 2001 IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Edmonton, Canada. The Edmonton organizers staged a special 800-meter race for the media, and it was quite a thrill when Haile showed up to watch slow Sonny stagger across the finish line. That's where the photo you see on the left came from. Also on Thursday's show, Sonny and Africa News Tonight host Chinedu Offor will talk about the 2008 African Footballer of the Year award. The prize will be presented February 10th in Lagos, Nigeria. The African Football Confederation, CAF, says the three players on its final shortlist for the award are Egypt's Mohamed Aboutrika, Ghana's Michael Essien, and Togo's Emmanuel Adebayor. Chinedu is tipping Adebayor to win, while Sonny is picking Aboutrika.
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