Kenenisa Bekele added to his aura Monday with a third straight 10,000 metre world title after team-mate Sileshi Sihine paced him in a dramatic victory for Ethiopia.
Japan-based Kenyan Martin Mathathi finished third behind Sihine as the Ethiopian duo overtook him at the start of the final lap in the 25-lap race and Bekele broke away from his team-mate around the last bend.
The 25-year-old remains unbeaten in all his eight 10,000m races including the 2004 Athens Olympics, where he ended Haile Gebrselassie's reign with another astonishing sprint finish. He clocked 27min 05.90sec with Sihine at 27:09.03 and Mathathi at 27:12.7, short of his world record time of 26:17.53.
"Winning the world championship is fantastic for me. At the end of a race, if you have good speed, you can win," beamed Bekele, who also holds the 5,000m world record. "With three laps to go, I was tired. But after some minutes, my body started to recover a bit. I used everything I had to come back and when I caught Sileshi (Sihine), of course, I had to pass him."
Sihine, 24, who finished second to Bekele in Athens and at the 2005 world championships in Helsinki, said: "We are very happy with the team's results." "My stomach was hurting from about the tenth lap and I tried my best. But in the end, Kenenisa was better than me, and he beat me."
Zersenay Tadesse of Eritrea took an early lead closely trailed in his slipstream by Bekele sandwitched by Sihine and another team-mate Gebre Gebremariam with Mathathi behind them.
The front pack thinned to nine halfway through. Mathathi surged to the front just before 9,000m with Bekele and Shihine behind him while Tadesse started slowing down. The Ethiopian duo chased Mathathi hard before they mounted their own duel in the final lap.
The result helped Bekele close on legendary compatriot Gebrselassie's four successive 10,000m world crowns, holding up the East African stranglehold on distance running. Tadesse, the Olympic bronze medalist who won the IAAF cross country championship in March when Zekele dropped out in sweltering conditions, managed to finish fourth in 27:21.37.
"If there are too many running together, it's a problem at the finish," Tadesse said about his lead. "But I am happy, I'm fourth." Bekele, due to run in 10,000m in Brussels in two weeks' time, said he might attempt a world record there. "But it will be very tough run twice in less than two weeks, along with all this travelling. But I'll probably try."