Ethiopian legend, Haile Gebrselassie comes to you as a very humble and unassuming man. His profile is such that every sports journalist would love to meet and interview him.

So when a London-based security firm with a branch in Lagos, G4S selected me to cover an event for a select group of African athletes who are expected to camp and train under the watchful eyes of Gebrselassie in Nairobi, Kenya early this year, I looked forward to the trip with the excitement of a school kid going on his first excursion.The three-day programme was as exciting and eventful as the Massai people inducted Gegbrselassie into their Hall of Fame. A well attended fire camp was organised where he and well-wishers including staff of G4S danced with the Massai warriors.

At the Hotel Serena where the athletes, including Nigeria's fastest male athlete, Obinna Metu and this Ethiopian hero stayed, not many knew Gebrselassie was there. He always walked into the restaurant unnoticed until some people who knew him identified him and alerted others. In response, he smiled and waved to them.

He also took time to have some snapshots with his admirers, including yours sincerely who always looked forward to the man that held the entire athletic world in awe, churning out world records at will, either at the Olympics or World Championships.

One moment I will forever cherish was when the legend personally autographed his biography, The Greatest, The Haile Gebrselassie Story, written by Jim Denison and handed it to me. He also came to me as an African patriot who wondered why African governments always allowed foreign companies to take the initiative to develop their athletes, like G4S was doing with Metu and three others, from South Africa, Botswana and Kenya.

I did not get to know the true Gebrselassie until I began reading the book. He was only seven years old when he identified with the long distance races of 5,000m and 10,000m which had become the exclusive preserve of his compatriots.

And the particular athlete who changed his career from following his father as a farmer and herdsman was Miruts Yifter who took the world by storm at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Little Gebrselassie understood what it meant to be an Olympic medallist, as Yifter became the talk of the town and praises sang in his honour for the Olympic feat.

According to the biography, his father, Gebrselassie Bekele had a radio set with which he monitored the activities of government during the heady days of Mengistu Haile Mariam's dictatorship. After listening to the news, he removed the batteries from the radio and hid them, so that they will last long for him as money for new ones were hard to come by.

For young Gebrselassie, the day Yifter ran the 10,000-meter final in Moscow was not one he could miss. He wanted to follow the race blow by blow through the radio commentary. According to him therefore "I stole the batteries and grabbed the radio and ran into the fields far, far away from our house. I knew what I was doing was wrong. My father hated thieves, and he would have been very angry with me for stealing those batteries.

But inside my heart, I knew that what I wanted to know and hear from the radio was not a bad thing. It was a good thing, actually. And also very important for Ethiopia. That was what I truly felt. That was what gave me the courage to do what I did. I wasn't afraid of being punished or beaten. I only cared about one thing: I had to know what Miruts Yifter would do in Moscow."

According to Gebrselassie, one thing he kept hearing from the radio was "Yes, it's Miruts Yifter. Yes, Miruts Yifter wins for Ethiopia! Miruts Yifter wins the Olympic 10,000-metre gold medal." From that moment all that was engraved on the mind of the young man was "I want to win the Olympic 10,000 metres like Miruts Yifter; I want to do something special, something big; I want to be the greatest distance runner of all time."

Haile's father never caught him stealing the batteries nor listening to the radio commentary that day but each time the boy showed interest in running his father wondered why his son would want to take to running which he believes was merely a fun game. He wondered how his son or anyone at that, could make money just running.

Despite his father's kick against the idea, the fire to become like his hero in the distance races continued to burn ceaselessly inside the little boy and he got encouragement from his mother to pursue both his education and career in athletics. She never lived long to reap from her son's wealth and fame.

After the desire came the opportunity to take the bull by the horns. First was to convince his father to join his older brother in the city at Addis Ababa. At 15, he said he went to the city for the first time in his life.

He took part in his first major race, a marathon in 1988 and he returned a time of 2 hours 48 minutes, considered not too bad for a 15 year old. According to his biography, that marathon effort left him with bruised and battered body and thick blisters on his thighs and feet.

When his father saw how bruised he was from the marathon race, his anger was said to have increased but Haile had made up his mind to run and told his father so. "I must carry on training, Father, I am a runner, now. It's something I must do," he told his father.

To continue in this venture, Haile needed support and so his coach took him to a Police officer so that the Police Force could assist by providing him with pocket money. The deal was struck and Haile became a runner for the police on $15 monthly income but never wore their uniform.

At 19 in 1992, he completed a double, winning 5,000/10,000 at the world junior track and field in Seoul, South Korea. "After that competition, I knew I was on my way. I felt confident that something special was inside me," he said.

He said it was from there he started thinking about the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and that it could be "my chance to do what Yifter did. My chance to win the 10,000-meter gold medal."

The young Haile almost got distracted when he got attracted to a girl selling juices on the road side on the street of Addis Ababa. His coach advised him against dating a girl, as it could distract him from achieving his goal at the Atlanta Olympics.

Haile would not have that for an answer to his desire. He eventually got to meet his dream girl through his coach and they got going. He said he told the girl, whose name he gave as Alem, that "we will have plenty of money and live in a good house and have all the food we want to eat."

Shortly after that, his dreams began to manifest when in 1993 he won the 10,000 metres at the world championships in Stuttgart. His prize, Denison reported, included a brand-new Mercedes Benz which was delivered to him in Addis to the admiration of his father who once kicked against him taking to the tracks.

"Yes, Haile, I can see it's possible to make a living as a runner," was what the proud father enthusiastically told his son. He has gone to make more money, not only enough to take care of his immediate and extended family, but also to provide jobs for numerous Ethiopians through his various business outlets.

He told yours sincerely in Nairobi last January that he was building a four star hotel in Addis which would employ more Ethiopians. He called on African businessmen and companies to open up more outlets to engage the youths in their various countries.

One thing was clear from Denison's narrative in the book, The Greatest. Gebrselassie said that though altitude, hard work and science are some of the necessary conditions needed to produce great long distance runners, "Most important of all is self-belief, confidence and inspiration."

These could have given him that determination to catch up with his greatest rival and friend, Paul Tergat of Kenya almost at the finish line to clinch his second Olympic 10,000 metres gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. A race he said he will never forget, a race that crowned him the greatest distance runner of all time. May be that is where Denison got the title of the biography, The Greatest, The Haile Gebrselassie Story.