Mumbai Marathon 2017: Indians are gifted runners, says Haile Gebrselassie

Ex-Ethiopian great Gebrselassie (right) with actor John Abraham during a Mumbai Marathon event on Tuesday. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Running may not be a culture in our country, but global ambassador for the Tata Mumbai Marathon and Ethiopian great Haile Gebrselassie feels that Indians are gifted when it comes to long distance running, and they can achieve success if they do more altitude training.

"Indians are naturally gifted in long distance running but they don't realise it. If you see in the Himalayas, people run the whole day, imagine their strength. They lack of couple of things like a local role model and some tough altitude training, but if they can get that then no one will be able to touch Indian distance runners in the future.

'Indians need training'
"I finished 100th in my first marathon at the age of 16 but here Indians tend to do well from their very first run. They need professional training though," said the double Olympic gold-medallist (he won gold in 10,000m at Atlanta and Sydney), on the sidelines of the announcement of a new title sponsor for the 15th edition of the Mumbai Marathon.

'Incorrect to ban Russia'
The world of athletics is reeling under a dope menace and the former world record holder said that though a clean up act is the need of the hour, it's unfair to ban a country (Russia) for doping.

"Doping is a menace and we need to clean up the system, but at the same time, it's not correct to ban an entire country, like in the case of Russia. Yes, the numbers are big (in Russia), but the problem is in every country. Many a times, athletes are unaware that they are consuming a banned substance.

"There are so many innocent athletes too, who have been punished and that's really sad," added Gebrselassie, the president of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation.