So I was browsing through some sports articles, like I frequently do, and I found a most interesting article (I thought, anyway) about competition, running, good sportsmanship, and championship performance.

Just to give you the quick rundown, Ethiopian distance runner Haile Gebrselassie broke the world marathon record, by 26 seconds, in Berlin on September 30. 26 seconds might not sound like much, but it's truly an eternity in running; anything can happen in 26 seconds.

Acutally, anything happened after the 26 seconds.... When Gebrselassie won, and after he'd cooled down a bit, he was handed a cell phone. On the other end of the line was his longtime friend and rival, Paul Tergat of Kenya, calling to congratulate him on the new record. As the previous record holder, this was a matter of no small import to Tergat. And when Gebrelassie got on the phone, this is what he said:

"I'm sorry."

In an interview later, he elaborated:

"I am sorry -- this record belonged to Paul Tergat," Gebrselassie told a news conference when asked about the phone call. "Paul is my friend."

...

"I really wanted to do this record but I was a little bit worried about it, worried about attacking my friend's record," said Gebrselassie, 34, who fell 61 seconds short a year ago in Berlin in his first attempt to break Tergat's mark of 2:04.55.

Now, I am all for good sportsmanship, and friendly competition, but is it really necessary to apologize for breaking a world record? If Gebrselassie wasn't in the race to win, then why was he there? And if he was in it to win, what does he have to apologize for?

Now don't get me wrong; I'm not trying to knock the guy. I actually think it's kind of nice, that he'd apologize to the previous record holder, for breaking the record, and even nicer that two world-class competitors can be friends as well as rivals.

But I also think that he had nothing to apologize for.