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30 March, 2008
EDINBURGH (AFP) - Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele overcame almost losing a running shoe to win the men's world cross country title here on Sunday for a record sixth time.
In a startling display of controlled running, Bekele finished the 12.1km course in 34min 38sec, 0.03sec ahead of Patrick Komon of Kenya, with defending champion Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea in third at a further 0.02.
Bekele suffered a nightmare early in the race when he was clipped from behind and had the heel of one of his running shoes ripped off on the second of the first two short laps.
"It was very tough," said the 25-year-old, referring to the incident.
"In a group, you cannot control your legs. Maybe someone might touch the back of your legs and your shoe comes off. But it was at the beginning of the race, I wasn't tired and I was able to recover."
The Ethiopian, the world record holder at 5,000m and 10,000m, did indeed recover, stopping to readjust his footing, gather himself mentally and quickly making up the lost ground.
By halfway he was up alongside Tadese and the Kenyan duo of Komon and Joseph Ebuya as runners dropped off when the pace picked up over the hilly course made very muddy by a morning downpour.
As pace-setter Tadese faded, Bekele came into his own, his beautiful, relaxed running action taking him out in front of the chasing trio for a win which confirmed his status as the best endurance runner ever.
"It's not easy. I have won double gold medals five times at this competition but this one is very special for me," said Bekele.
"Everybody all over the world was expecting me to win."
