EDINBURGH, March 31: Kenenisa Bekele became the first man to win the world cross country championship long course title six times when he led home an Ethiopian clean sweep of the four individual gold medals on Sunday.

Bekele took his remarkable tally to 11 senior world cross titles in all and gained ample revenge for his surprise defeat by Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese last year when he blasted clear on the final lap of the 12km course to finish ahead of Kenyan outsider Leonard Patrick Komon with Tadese third.

Tirunesh Dibaba, champion in 2005 and 2006, took the women’s race following success for her younger sister Genzebe in the junior women’s race and a win for Ibrahim Jeilan in the junior men’s event.

Ethiopia won two of the four team golds, Kenya spoiling the card with success in both men’s events, to complete a glorious comeback after their disappointment of last season when the heat of Mombasa contributed to their worst performance for years.

It was the first time Ethiopia have won all four individual golds, and the first clean sweep since Kenya achieved the feat in 1994.

“Last year as individuals and a team we didn’t do well and let our country down but I believe we have redeemed ourselves,” said Dibaba, who finished ahead of compatriot Mestawet Tufa and and 18-year-old Kenyan Linet Chepkweomi Masai.

Bekele, the Olympic and triple world champion over 10,000 metres on the track, had won both the long and, now discontinued, short course world titles five years in a row until he dropped out during last year’s race and was desperate to make amends in Edinburgh, where he beat Tadese over the same course in January.

Results: Men’s individual event: 1. Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia) 34 minutes 38 seconds; 2. Leonard Patrick Komon (Kenya) 34:41; 3. Zersenay Tadesse (Eritrea) 34:43; 4. Joseph Ebuya (Kenya) 34:47; 5. Moses Masai (Kenya) 35:02; 6. Felix Kikwai Kibore (Qatar) 35:15; 7. Gideon Ngatuny (Kenya) 35:16; 8. Abdullah Ahmad Hassan (Qatar) 35:18; 9. Habtamu Fikadu (Ethiopia) 35:19; 10. Bernard Kiprop Kipyego (Kenya) 35:24.—Reuters