EDINBURGH: Ethiopia distance star Kenenisa Bekele could only manage fourth place in the nine kilometre Edinburgh cross-country race as he suffered a rare defeat on Saturday.

Joseph Ebuya led a Kenyan clean sweep of the podium places as Bekele, returning to the snow-covered Holyrood Park venue for the first time since winning his sixth World Championship on the course in 2008, finished well behind the leading trio.

“I got killed by three Kenyans,” said Bekele, the reigning Olympic champion at both 5,000 and 10,000 metres, after Ebuya, Titus Mbishei and Eliud Kipchoge came in ahead of him. Bekele added he had missed training sessions after coming to Scotland via London, where he visited the 2012 Olympic Games site on Thursday.

“I normally would only arrive a day before so I missed a couple of training sessions,” added Beleke who apart from failing to finish at the 2007 World Championships had only once before suffered a cross-country defeat. Better news for Ethiopia came in the women’s race where Tirunesh Dibaba, who also won the 5,000m and 10,000m titles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, outpaced her opponents on the final lap to take a victory on the six kilometre course. Kenya’s Vivian Cheruiyot and Ethiopia’s Kalkidan Gezahegn were second and third respectively.