Holyrood ready to elect world leader

REPRESENTING 70 countries from Australia to Zimbabwe, nearly 500 of the world's best middle-distance runners are in Edinburgh this weekend for tomorrow's staging of the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships at Holyrood Park.

Around 10,000 spectators are expected to line the route under the shadow of Arthur's Seat for the most prestigious athletics meeting to be held in Scotland since the 1986 Commonwealth Games. A global TV audience of 25 million is being anticipated for a race that will unfold just yards from the Scottish Parliament, over one of the most picturesque courses anywhere on the planet. Most eyes, however, will be trained on two Ethiopians with a point to prove.

It didn't go according to plan last year, when the Ethiopian team was reduced to its worst showing in 27-year history of the competition. The favourites to win the men's and women's individual races, Keninisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba, were both beaten in the sweltering heat of Kenya, and the magnitude of that letdown is likely to make both more determined than ever to make amends in Edinburgh.

Bekele and Dibaba are the athletes most experts believe are best equipped to emerge from the mud, cold and slopes of Holyrood Park on a wintry March afternoon with gold medals dangling from their necks and a £15,000 winner's cheque in their hands. Bekele has been over the course before and knows what it takes to navigate his way up Haggis Knowe, but the greatest cross-country runner of all time has several extra incentives to come out on top in tomorrow's 12km race.

For a start, he will be cheered on for the very first time by his new wife, the Ethiopian actress Danawit Gebregziabher, who he married in November. If he breaks the tape tomorrow afternoon, the incomparable Ethiopian will become the first man to win the classic long-course title six times.

Bekele is to cross-country running what Tiger Woods is to golf or Roger Federer to tennis. He has monopolised the World Cross Country Championships for the best part of a decade, and arrived in Kenya last March chasing that unprecedented sixth consecutive long-course title, a feat that would have surpassed the record set by Kenyan legend John Tergat. With an extraordinary run of 27 consecutive cross-country wins behind him, he started as he meant to continue, setting the pace from the front.

But just when the record-breaking victory was in sight, it all went horribly wrong for the farmer's son. Bekele was leading on the next-to-last lap when he succumbed to the brutally hot and humid conditions. Passed by eventual winner Zersenay Tadesse on last lap, his legs couldn't take him any further and he was forced to drop out before the finish, his chance to make history evaporating into the east African air. To lose on Tergat's home soil, and witness Kenyan fans celebrating his defeat, was particularly hard to take.

It still hurts, and the 12-metre high image of Tadesse greeting those arriving at Edinburgh Airport this week served as a painful reminder. According to Bekele's manager Jos Hermens, "this has just motivated him even more to regain his title."

The conditions in Edinburgh could not be more different than they were last year in Mombasa, where one sixth of the field failed to finish. The north European climate seems to suit Bekele, who made his breakthrough at senior level at the 2002 World Cross Country Championships in Dublin, and has already tasted victory three times over the Holyrood Park course, which has hosted the Great Edinburgh International in recent years. Tadesse won't give it up without a fight, and will be equally determined to prove last year's triumph was no fluke, but the defending champion from Eritrea will need to produce one of the performances of his life to hang on to his crown. Bekele has beaten him 11 times out of 12. Two months ago, he did so by only one second to win the 9.3km Great Edinburgh International, but the victory was more comfortable than the margin suggests. Nevertheless, the thousands of fans flocking to Holyrood Park for the main event tomorrow can look forward to a titanic battle between two special talents who will both be medal contenders at the Beijing Olympics.

Ugandan Commonwealth 10,000m champion Boniface Kiprop may also be in contention for a medal along with Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge and Joseph Ebuya. The confidence expressed by Kenya team manager Peter Angwenyi should come as no surprise given that his team are chasing a staggering 21st victory tomorrow. "We have superb runners who are definitely going to retain the team title and seriously fight for the individual titles as well," he said.

The finishing positions of the top six from a team of up to nine are added together for the men and women, respectively, and the team with the lowest total time wins. Don't expect any surprises, though. The senior men's team race has been won by either Ethiopia or Kenya every year since 1981.

The British team doesn't have a top-20 contender, but the loudest support from the crowd may be reserved for Australia's Craig Mottram, who has Scottish roots. "I'm almost one of you guys – my mum's from Aberfeldy," says Mottram, who may be a lone non-African near the front of the field.

Africans will dominate the women's race too, with Dibaba determined to make up for the disappointment of finishing second to the Kenya-born Dutchwoman Lornah Kiplagat in Mombassa last year. Kiplagat has not returned to defend her title, leaving Dibaba as the outstanding athlete in the field, and the 22-year-old is aiming for her third world title.

As in the men's events, the British women will be looking to establish themselves as the best team in Europe. Hayley Yelling and Liz Yelling are the principal home challengers in this race and will probably be aiming for a place in the top 30.

Overall, 14 races will take place over the weekend, with the Home Countries International races headlining today's action. The IAAF World Cross Country Championship begins with the junior men's and women's races tomorrow before giving way to the main event.

Geoff Wightman, chairman of the local organising committee, said: "From the outset when we bid for this event, you prepare for two years for essentially 90 minutes of racing and it was always our intention to try and get the excitement of the occasion to as many people as we possibly could."