Athletics: Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele powered to his fifth straight men's four kilometres title at the world cross country championships in Japan today.
Olympic and world 10,000 metres champion Bekele held off a strong challenge from Kenya's Isaac Songok to cross the line in 10 minutes 54 seconds in chilly Fukuoka.
Bekele will bid to emulate Kenyan Paul Tergat's achievement of winning the 4km and 12km titles five years in a row in tomorrow's longer race.
Tergat dominated both events from 1995.
"No victories are ever easy but today was the toughest," Bekele told reporters after collecting his 17th world title in track, indoor and cross country. "We've never finished this close. The course was very flat and fast, and it was very windy, so it was hard to drop the other competitors."
Songok went one better than his bronze last year, finishing just a second behind Bekele, with Morocco's Adil Kaouch third in 10:57.
Tirunesh Dibaba made it an Ethiopian double, producing a powerful finishing burst for the line to defend her 8km title. Dibaba, who won the 4km race last year, outsprinted Kenyan-born Lornah Kiplagat, who runs for the Netherlands, to win in 25:21.
Dibaba missed almost a week of training through illness in the run-up to the Fukuoka championships. Kiplagat finished five seconds behind with Ethiopia's Meselech Melkamu third in 25:38.
The 4km races for both men and women will be dropped from next year's world cross country championships.