Haile Gebrselassie will make his Great South Run debut next month.

The 41-year-old phenomenon will be the star attraction on the ten-mile Portsmouth course on October 26.

He said: “I love competing in the Bupa Great Run series. I’ve run in the Great Run races in Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, Australia and Ethiopia and I have won them all too.

“It will be great to add the Bupa Great South Run in Portsmouth to the list. It will be a new experience for me.”

The flat, fast ten mile course has attracted some of the world’s best runners in the past – Mo Farah, Paula Radcliffe, Sonia O’Sullivan, Liz McColgan and Jo Pavey among them – and the distance ought to be perfectly suited to Gebrselassie, who has broken an incredible 27 world records at distances ranging from two miles to the 26.2 miles of the marathon.

“My training has been going well but I cannot indicate what time I am going to run,” added the Ethiopian, who has won two Olympic titles and four World Championship titles at 10,000m.

“I had a small surgery on my knee a few months ago but I am in pretty good shape now.”