Kenenisa Bekele Favourite at Cross- Country Worlds

FUKUOKA, Japan (CP) - Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele wants one last shot at winning both the short-and long-distance races at the world cross-country championships.

Bekele, the Olympic and world 10,000-metre champion, will be the favourite in the four-and 12-kilometre races in Japan this weekend and will be looking to win the double for an unprecedented fifth straight time.

Canada is sending 28 runners to the meet - 16 senior and 12 junior - led by Kevin Sullivan of Brantford, Ont., Courtney Babcock of Chatham, Ont., and Carmen Douma-Hussar of Cambridge, Ont.

The Fukuoka meet marks the last time that both the short-and long-distance competitions will be staged at the world championships.

"I want to run both races," Bekele said Friday. "It's not easy to compete in both races and this year I want to complete the double race for the last time."

Bekele, a two-time IAAF athlete of the year, won his first world indoor title at 3,000 metres in Moscow earlier this month. The 23-year-old also won a cross-country event at Edinburgh in January and arrives in Japan in top form.

Bekele's streak of winning both races began in 2002 in Dublin.

Among his challengers here will be world steeplechase champion Saif Saeed Shaheen of Qatar and Kenyan Augustine Choge, a 19-year-old who won the world junior cross-country title a year ago and captured the 5,000-metre race at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne earlier this month.

Choge holds the world junior records at 3,000 and 5,000.

"There are a lot of people who would like to snatch the title from me," said Bekele. "I think the short race is tougher than the long one because it requires speed and there are a lot of strong athletes, but I'm confident I can win."

In the women's races, 20-year-old Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia is the defending champion in both the short and long races.

Dibaba, who is coming off a recent bout of measles, will be challenged by compatriot Gelete Burika, the reigning world cross-country junior champion, and Isabella Ochichi of Kenya, the Olympic 5,000 silver medallist.

"I wasn't that ill," said Dibaba. "I only missed three days. I'm feeling better now and I've been training well for this meet."

Kenya and Ethiopia are by far the most successful countries in the history of the world championships, winning 93 of the 133 available team titles. The two countries have met 96 times, with Kenya beating Ethiopia 59-37.

When the championships return to Mombassa, Kenya, for the 35th edition in 2007, the format will revert to the one-day event with the short races for both women and men being dropped from the program.