Athletics: Run-down Bekele's late burst after a long night

Kenenisa Bekele cast off the after-effects of an attack of typhoid to retain his World Cross Country short course title in extraordinary fashion here yesterday. If he feels strong enough to take part in the 12km long course race today, the 20-year-old Ethiopian will be on course to collect a second clean sweep of gold medals, just as he did a year ago in Dublin.

Bekele, who had to miss the Ethiopian trials a month ago because of the disease, out-sprinted the two-times champ- ion John Kibowen and his fellow Kenyan Ben Limo, the 1999 world 5,000m silver medallist, to win by three seconds.

However, Bekele's individual brilliance could not stop Kenya from winning the team title for a sixth successive time since the 4km event was added to the programme in 1998. The Kenyans totalled 14 points, 17 less than Ethiopia, with Morocco third on 44 points.

Both Kenyans put in a serious challenge between the second and third kilometres of the race but Bekele kept up his momentum before unleashing an unstoppable finish 300 metres from the line.

The Ethiopian selectors only chose the defending champion at the insistence of the governing body after he had missed the compulsory trials. He also endured the worst of the pre-race preparations. After attending a reception for former champions on the eve of the race, he went on to the official banquet aboard the MV Lausanne on Lake Geneva.

Bekele did not realise that the ship was putting to sea and spent four hours aboard before it berthed. Bekele, who normally goes to bed at 8pm, had no cash with him and again found himself stranded. He was eventually found sheltering in a hotel doorway by a British journalist who organised a taxi for him, and Bekele finally went to bed at 12.30am.

He showed no sign of fatigue during his convincing victory on a rutted surface. "I felt a lot of pressure because journalists were writing a lot about me because of my sickness," he admitted, clutching his second successive gold medal. "But I like this, I liked the race and the race surface."

The American Deena Drossin, in contrast, had to settle for the silver medal for a second successive year when she was out-sprinted in the last 600 metres of the women's race by Worknesh Kidane.

The Ethiopian Kidane, the 1999 junior champion, matched the feats of Derartu Tulu and Gete Wami by regaining the title for her country in a race dominated in the past two years by Britain's Paula Radcliffe. The 21-year-old opened up a nine-second gap over her US rival in the 8,000m race to win in 25 minutes 53 seconds.

Ethiopia easily retained the team title with 18 points, nine lower than runners-up Kenya who reversed last year's positions with 11 points fewer than the USA.

In the junior 6,200m race, last year's silver medallist Tirunesh Dibaba produced a scorching finish to ruin the hopes of Peninah Chepchumba, who had led most of the way. Dibaba, Ethiopia's world junior 5,000m silver medallist last year, won by one second. Her team-mates Gelete Burika, Meselech Melkamu and Sentayehu Ejigu were third, fourth and sixth respectively, retaining the team title from Kenya with Morocco third.