The 40-year-old  set a world masters and Scottish all-comers' half marathon record of 61min 09sec on his first visit to the country, breaking Kenya's Emmanuel Mutai's record by a second.

Gebrselassie did have it all his own way during a race which used some of the course due to form part of the marathon for next year's Commonwealth Games in the city with Emmanuel Bett, who ran the fastest 10,000m in the world last year, sticking with him until the 11 mile mark.

Despite Gebrselassie's constant pressure, it looked ominous for the two-time Olympic gold medallist, with Bett looking likely to use his superior sprint speed to run away from the veteran in the latter stages of the race.

The Ethiopian had other ideas however and dug deep to finally break away from the Kenyan with two miles to go.

Bett had no answer to this final push and had to settle for second place with a time of 61:40.

Spain's Ayad Lamdassem came in third, posting a time of 61:59.

"He's a tough guy to race, very tough" said Gebrselassie, who found Bett quite happy to share the pace from as early as three miles.

"I kept trying to get away but he was running well."

Haile Gebrselassie will be happy to put the disappointment of his third place finish in the Great North Run behind him with victory in the Great Scottish Run in Glasgow

The world's greatest ever distance runner, whose time was easily a world masters record erasing the 1:02:28 performances of New Zealand's John Campbell and Kenyan Nelson Chirchir, added that was not his major target.

"For me winning against the best in the world and not just setting age group records is much more important," said Gebrselassie, third in the Great North Run earlier this month behind compatriot Kenenisa Bekele and Britain's Mo Farah.

"When I saw the time at 15k I knew we were heading for a fast time.

"After losing out in the last mile at the Bupa Great North Run I had to get clear today and decided to make my move when I did and it worked so well.

I'm happy with this win."

In the women's race three Scots finished in the top four, with Leeds-based runner Susan Partridge, taking a commanding victory, beating second placed Freya Ross by more than a minute.

Susan Partridge won the women's race by more than a minute, ahead of fellow Scot Freya Ross

Partridge, who missed out on her personal best by nine seconds as she won in 70:40, was surprised at her domination of the race.

"I didn't think I would get away so early," said the Leeds-based athlete, tenth in this summer's World Championships marathon and took charge of today's contest after four miles.

"I didn't know how fast I was going, but it wasn't a problem running on my own.

"It's easier when you're leading and much harder when you've been dropped."

Simon Lawson produced a solid display to win the men's wheelchair 10 kilometres race in a time of 24:21 while Sammi Kinghorn took the women's race from Jane Egan recording 30:59 to her rival's 37:33.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
September 2013: Treble beats double as Bekele outsprints Farah at Great North Run