Haile Gebrselassie's career in pictures

Haile Gebrselassie has announced his retirement from competitive running, bringing to an end a 25-year career in which he claimed two Olympic gold medals, eight World Championship victories and set 27 world records.

Here are some of the Ethiopian runner's greatest feats.

Haile Gebrselassie won his first world championship gold medal for the 10,000 metres in Stuttgart in 1993 at 20 years old. He went on to win four consecutive world championships

It was his most famous win as he stepped on Kenya's Moses Tanui's shoe during the final lap sprint finish and it flew off his foot

He went onto win his next gold at the Gothenburg world championships in Sweden in 1995

And in the same year he lopped nine seconds off the 10,000 metres world record when he ran it in 26 minutes, 43.53 seconds in Hengelo in the Netherlands

His two other world championship golds came in Athens in 1997 and in Seville, pictured here, in 1999

Haile Gebreselassie won his first Olympic gold medal in the 10,000 race in Atlanta, 1996 in 27 minutes, 7.34 seconds, creating a new Olympic record

He won his second Olympic gold medal in Sydney four years later in an almost identical picture finish with Paul Tergat behind him again

He left the track after the 2004 Olympics and focused on marathons. He has had three straight wins in Dubai, including here he 2009

He also won the Berlin marathon four times in a row. In 2008 he set a new marathon world record of two hours and 3.59 seconds and won again in 2009, as in this picture