Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie will attack his own world record when he defends his Dubai Marathon title next year.

Gebrselassie's record of 2:03:59 will be under threat on January 22 over the fast Dubai course.

Gebrselassie said: "I still can't believe I didn't break the world record in 2008. Everything was perfect, except the pace for the first half of the race, which was too fast."