He stopped for a minute before continuing, but eventually pulled out after 35km as Kenya’s Patrick Makau went on to set a new world record of two hours three minutes 38 seconds, taking 21 seconds off Gebrselassie’s time from 2008.

Gebrselassie, 38, announced his retirement after also failing to finish the New York marathon last year – a decision he reversed a few days later – but his agent Jos Hermens insisted there would be no repeat this time.

“In one way yes, it is the end of an era because there is a new generation, but it’s not the end of Haile,” Hermens said. “He will continue and look for another marathon to run fast, probably Dubai in January.

“He has exercise-induced asthma and has an inhaler for it, but he has not needed it for more than a year and so did not use it today.

“We do not know exactly why it comes up but they were running at world-record pace and it was maybe similar to the problem with pollen in London (in 2007, when he also failed to finish).

Hermens admitted the days of Gebrselassie setting world records are over, but added: “Haile can still run 2:04 or 2:05 when he is 45 years old, but by then people might be running 2:02. I think we will see sub-2:03 marathons.”