Kenenisa Bekele overcame the loss of a running shoe early in the race to prove himself the world's greatest cross-country runner of all time as he won a record sixth long course championship title in Edinburgh.

Bekele was expected to move ahead of the five victories of Kenyan legends John Ngugi and Paul Tergat in Mombasa last year until a stomach upset saw him drop out and surrender his dominance of the gold medal to Eritrea's Zersenay Tadese.

That setback was a massive disappointment to the reigning world and Olympic 10,000 metres champion and he vowed before today's race he would put the record straight.

Despite suffering the shock of his shoe coming off when brushed by a Kenyan opponent just five minutes into the 12-kilometre contest, the 25-year-old Ethiopian did exactly that when leaving his rivals behind over the final circuit of the race.

Bekele, who is no stranger to the Holyrood Park venue where for the last three years he has won the BUPA Great Edinburgh Cross Country, used his knowledge of the undulating terrain when making a long winning burst for home.

The sharpness of his strike pulled him well clear of Leonard Komon and he had a three-second winning margin ahead of Kenya's 20-year-old former junior silver medallist.

Tadese, the defending champion, lost his crown by five seconds.

Bekele said: "I was worried about it...when you lose a shoe you cannot run. But it was at the beginning of the race and I was not so tired.

"So I decided to stop and put it back on. That was the sensible thing to do."

Bekele who lost 30m to the leading pack, admitted: "If it had come later in the race it would have been more serious."

Tirunesh Dibaba also regained her women's title after surrendering it to Lornah Kiplagat in Mombasa - although for a few minutes it seemed she would lose out again after falling back to fourth position in her eight-kilometre race.

Dibaba was left flat-footed, as were Mestawet Tufa and Linet Masai, when Gelete Burka put in a telling burst with just over a lap of their race remaining.

Burka, like Bekele a three-times winner of the annual Edinburgh world cross meeting, powered away from the trio and seemed to have the race tied up when opening a 20m gap.

But before the final ascent of the testing Haggis Knowle hill this month's winner of the World Indoor 1500m medal fell apart and Tufa, Dibaba and Masai flashed past.

The trio eyeballed one another but on the final descent of the hill, Dibaba used her legendary finishing pace to blow Tufa into second place by three seconds with Masai - still a junior and last year's champion - a further three in arrears.

"I felt a stitch in the middle of the race and that's when I fell back," said the 22-year-old superstar.

"But it went away and wasn't too bad.

"I did expect I would be able to move up and join them. I wasn't too worried."

Dibaba's leadership saw Ethiopia take team honours for the seventh successive time from arch-rivals Kenya with Australia, led home by eighth-placed Benita Johnson - the 2004 champion - winning their first long course medals.

Liz Yelling, after leading in the early stages of the women's race, placed 15th and led the Great Britain side to a solid sixth position.

Charlotte Purdue, last December's European junior bronze medallist, was the continent's first finisher when 16th in her event, with the youngsters an outstanding fourth position.

The GB senior men, led home by Tom Humphries in 62nd, were 11th whilst the juniors' challenge was spearheaded by David Forrester in 24th spot, with the young men ninth in the team event.