Ethiopian Olympic great Haile Gebrselassie is in danger of missing the London Games after finishing fourth with a modest time in the Tokyo marathon won by Kenyan Michael Kipyego.

Gebrselassie, 38, had set himself a target of two hours and five minutes to qualify for Ethiopia’s Games team after three compatriots had dipped below that mark four weeks ago in Dubai.

His time on Sunday of 2:08.17 is only the 14th fastest by an Ethiopian this year, so his chances of adding Olympic marathon gold to his two 10,000m titles is in serious doubt.

It remains to be seen whether he will make another attempt to run a fast marathon time to raise his chances of being among three Ethiopians eligible to run at the London Olympics on August 12.

“I was running OK until 35-36km but my back started to hurt at the final downhill of the course. In fact my back felt uncomfortable from the morning,” Gebrselassie said.

“I am not tired. I feel fresh. I can run another marathon in two weeks. No problem.

“Sometimes you are too ambitious. This can happen. My target was 2:05 today but it didn’t work out that way. The last 5km was the worst I’ve ever run.”

Gebrselassie attacked with around six kilometres left in cool conditions on Sunday but Kipyoego came from behind to win in 2:07.37.

Gebrselassie won the 10,000m gold in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics and has

four world titles over the distance.

After stepping away from the track to focus on road running following the 2004 Olympics, he lowered the marathon world record to 2:03:59 in 2008 but lost it in September to Kenyan Patrick Macau who ran 2:03:38 in Berlin.

He has struggled in recent marathons, failing to finish the 2010 New York City Marathon and pulling out of Tokyo last year after injuring himself in training.