Yomi Omogbeja (19/11/2007)

Ethiopian double world record holder for 5,000m and 10,000m, Kenenisa Bekele scores a major triumph over adversity, two years after losing his fiancee, after he got married yesterday to Ethiopian top actress Dannawit Gebregziabher in Addis Ababa.

The 25-year-old Olympic champion took the 22-year-old "The 11th Hour"- a rare big budget Ethiopian film that premiered in May 2006 - actress to the altar at a plush ceremony at the five star Addis Sheraton Hotel in the presence of  five hundred friends and wellwishers including the great Haile Gebrselassie and other fellow athletes.

This was a personal triumph over adversity for Bekele who suffered the tragic loss of his then-fiancée Alem Techale, the 2003 World Youth 1500m champion, who collapsed and died while on a training run with him on the outskirts of Addis Ababa in 2005.

Bekele has won a record 18 World Championships golds including five successive pairs of World Cross Country titles.

He won’t be back in action until January 2008 at the Great Edinburgh International Cross Country (IAAF Permit) at Holyrood Park where he will face defending champion Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadesse as part of his preparation for the 2008 World Cross Country Championships at a different course in Edinburgh next March.