Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele sprinted past his Eritrean and Kenyan rivals with about 600 meters left from the finishing line, to win the 9.3 Kilometer Great Edinburgh Cross Country race for the 3rd straight year. 


The ten-time IAAF senior world Cross Country champion, Kenenisa, finished the race in 27 minutes, 42 seconds. After several losses to Kenenisa, Eritrea’s Zersenay had a rare success last year in Mombasa due to a mid-race withdrawal by Kenenisa at the 2007 World Cross Country Championships. Most runners also dropped out of the Mombasa race due to the extreme heat weather.

Kenenisa bounced back last year to clock the year's best 10,000 time before his much celebrated wedding to Movie actress Danawit Gebregziabher in November 2007. [ Full Story ] The Olympic and world 10,000-meter champion, Kenenisa, closely defeated Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, who ran step by step with Zersenay. 

In the women's race, Gelete Burka also won in Edinburgh for the third time, bringing another hat-trick win for Ethiopia. She took the gold Saterday, beating the Kenyans by 15 seconds.