Hermens told Reuters that doctors in the Netherlands conducted a series of scans and examinations and concluded on Thursday that his injury was actually a rupture, which will require Kenenisa to take up to 2 months of rest. 

Hermens pointed out that Kenenisa, who will turn 28 in two weeks, will need lots of rest to nurse his injury, and that he prefers that he takes the rest of the year off, so that he can come back strong for the next season.

The pair known for their shy and modest demeanours, opened up on the eve of the BUPA Great Edinburgh international cross-country – an event each was hotly tipped to win.

 Dibaba, 24, glided majestically to a comfortable win over a stellar field, whilst Bekele’s defeat by three Kenyans sent shockwaves throughout the sport. The 27-year-old had been unbeaten over the terrain in nine years; still, it would be foolish to think that the world will this year be deprived of the accustomed fireworks from this Ethiopian duo.

Bekele and Dibaba; with a collective total of 45 Olympic and world gold medals between them, are understandably familiar with the limelight. Bekele has held world records at 5,000m (12:37.35) and 10,000m (26:20.31) since 2004 and has held at least one Olympic or World title since 2001.

Dibaba’s athletic resume in turn, stands up strong against her African counterpart; with a global title each year since 2003, a world 5,000m track and 15km road record (14:11.15 and 46:28) and matches the 5,000m/10,000m double Olympic gold-medal-winning exploits of Bekele from the Beijing Games in the summer of 2008.

Family life

The pair come from the town of Bekoji in the Oromia region of Ethiopia and hone their incredible endurance, speed and scintillating finishing kicks in and around Addis Ababa.

Inhabiting a plush hotel in the Scottish capital for their latest competition, the King and Queen of the track are away from home during the Ethiopian celebration of Christmas; each athlete described their trip as an obligation to their career and hoped an impressive result at Holyrood Park would offer a gift to loved ones back home.

Family is evidently very important to the talented twosome. Bekele; a fan of Chelsea and Barcelona, recovered from losing his 18-year-old fiancée to a heart-attack on a training run together in 2005 to marry to a famous Ethiopian actress and have two young daughters. His younger brother, Tariku is the reigning World Indoor 3,000m champion and is sole, trusted training partner.

“He is a great runner and I think in the future he could be a great champion; maybe better than me. I enjoy training with him – he helps to push and motivate me,” Bekele explained.

Dibaba, meanwhile, is the fourth of six children and she too comes from a family of world-class athletes.

“We are very lucky to be runners and to do so many things like train together,” she revealed.

The family link of talent does not stop there either, as Dibaba is married to 2004 and 2008 Olympic 10,000m silver-medalist, Sileshi Sihine and Derartu Tulu; the 2000 Olympic 10,000m champion, is her cousin.

The combination of inheriting superb genetics and willingly suffering from the tough daily grind has seen the duo achieve great things, and in particular, during the past two years. Retaining his Olympic 10,000m title and upgrading his 2004 Athens 5,000m silver to gold, Bekele said of his sublime 2008 season.

“They were great times and achievements for me: it was fantastic to be the Olympic and world champion at the same time,” he said.

Dibaba improved from Athens 5,000m bronze to also become victorious in ‘the distance double’ in China; achievements for which her club, the Prisons Police, bestowed the rank of Chief Superintendent for her services to club and country and the local hospital being named in her honour.

Mixed fortunes

2009 brought mixed fortunes for the all-conquering pair, as Bekele replicated his double gold-medal-winning performances at the World Championships in Berlin; whilst Dibaba was reduced to a spectator role, following an untimely bout of illness; squashing her efforts for a fifth global title on the track.

After additionally having to miss the chance to add a sixth world cross-country title to her belt in March through injury, luck was not on Dibaba’s side.

“Last year was not a good year for me, with missing the world cross and getting sick a month before Berlin. But I’ve come back to break the world 15km record and hopefully I will do the World Cross-Country Championships in March,” she explained.

The world record on the roads of Nijmegen two months ago represented Dibaba’s first race on the tarmac in five years and she paid the price for such a storming run; injuring her feet badly after ripping her shoes to shreds.

“I’m not 100% fully-recovered but I’m almost there. It was a great race for me; it showed I have a very great future on the roads,” she said.

Despite a major blip in the start to his competitive year, the self-coached Bekele remains confident of achievement remarkable things yet again in 2010. With no championships for Ethiopians to contest, he has set his sight on breaking two extremely tough world records on the track and taking the inaugural IAAF Diamond League series and prize-pot.

“My goals are to achieve many good results and this is a good year to break the world indoor 3,000m and world outdoor 5,000m records. I know it is not easy to break these, especially the 3,000m and the main thing for me is to stay healthy and do good performances,” he revealed.

The world will be eager to see whether Bekele achieves his first goal (the 3,000m record) in Birmingham next month and his rivals will be even keener to see what he can do, following recent proof that he is not invincible.

Dibaba is equally determined for a show-stopping year.

“My plan is always to win and this year I plan to do a very good job with my performances. I will run indoors in Boston and attempt the 5,000m world record but I will not do the World indoor Championships. I will probably go for victory in the world cross (in Bydgoszcz, Poland),” she revealed.

Given the present state of the weather in the UK, cold temperatures and snow and ice rather than mud are likely to be the natural hazards that wait what is annually one of the strongest fields of runners assembled on the cross country circuit. At 0800hrs GMT this morning (7) the temperature in Edinburgh was recorded as being minus 10C.

BUPA Great Edinburgh International Cross Country is the fourth of twelve IAAF XC Permit races in the 2009/10 season

Bekele’s participation on Saturday marks his return to competition after his 5000 and 10,000m double on the track at the World Championships in Berlin last summer. This will be the first race for the eleven-time World XC champion since his victory on the track over 3000m at the World Athletics Final in Thessaloniki on 12 September.

Yelling will aspire to demonstrate that her surprise European Cross Country Championship victory last month – a year after her original competitive retirement – was no fluke. Dibaba for her part in the script will be keen to capitalise on the scintillating form that saw her whisk to a 15km World record** on the roads in November. The Ethiopian will be eager to prevail over Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot, the woman who took the World 5000m crown last August when injury had relegated Dibaba to be a spectator.

MEN

Bekele, a former three-time winner of this race, will be making his fifth appearance in the Scottish capital and has spoken recently of his rejuvenation following the reunion with his preferred training partner, his brother Tariku. With the younger Ethiopian back from a year-long injury spell, the 27-year-old Kenenisa has found additional motivation and love for his running but may be feeling a little anxious ahead of what should be an arduous return to racing.

Bekele’s countryman, the reigning World Cross Country champion Gebre Gebremariam and Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, the 2003 World 5000m champion who was the 2005 Edinburgh race victor, will provide stiff competition over the nine-kilometre race.

Gebremariam, 25, has won two of the first three IAAF permit races of the current season (Soria 29 Nov and Oeiras 21 Nov), while Kipchoge narrowly lost in yesterday’s Campaccio European XC permit race in San Giorgio su Legnano, Italy, to World Junior 5000m champion Abraham Cherkos.

Eight-times European Cross Country champion Sergiy Lebid – third in last month’s continental Championships – will lead the European challenge after a fifth place result yesterday in the same Campaccio race in Italy.

A domestic based 4km short-course race will also feature on the day’s activities; with European Cross Country silver medallist, Mo Farah moving down in distance to take on the 2008 and 2009 winner, Andy Baddeley.

WOMEN

A clash with Dibaba over the 6km route will be a formidable test for Yelling the newly-crowned European champion. The 35-year-old Briton will be hoping the home-crowd support can spur her onto another surprise performance but the maths teacher will have done her own private calculations about her chances against two of the biggest guns in the world of distance running.

Dibaba, the Olympic 5000m and 10,000m, is a four-time senior World Cross Country champion and prevailed in Edinburgh during the spring of 2005 in this event and took the World title over the same course in 2007. The 24-year-old will be tough to beat but if anyone can stop her it will be Vivian Cheruiyot. The graceful Kenyan is like Dibaba a former World Junior Cross Country gold medallist and following her exploits last summer, will undoubtedly be a contender.

The younger Dibaba, Genzebe is fast-improving on the senior international scene and will certainly be one to watch at the head of the pack, as well the home hopes Stephanie Twell and Freya Murray – the former making her debut on Scottish soil. An intriguing entrant is the British World 1500m silver-medallist, Lisa Dobriskey, who returns from a recent honeymoon in Italy.

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5000m

However, it turned out that the other top runners were too shy in the presence of the legend Bekele. So rather than really trying to challenge him they were content with following his actions. This was especially surprising in the first three races in Berlin, Oslo and Rome where it was very obvious that Bekele was still in the process of getting back into top shape after losing much winter training due to injury.

But that fact still didn’t inspire any of the other runners to take the initiative in any of the races to put Bekele into a situation where he had to weigh his options for response. Instead the races were allowed to develop completely according to Bekele’s own wishes which in June and July meant saving energy for a decisive last lap sprint. He won in Berlin by 0.32 from Abraham Chebii, in Oslo by 0.59 from James Kwalia and Rome by 1.39 from Mark Kiptoo.

Just as the margins grew so did Bekele’s form and confidence and when he in Paris concluded his pre-Worlds schedule by running his fourth Golden League race he did it in a more Bekelesque fashion. The distance this time was 3000m and Bekele was on the offensive from the start and simply ran the opposition – headed by reigning 5000m World champion Bernard Lagat – into the ground.

In Berlin the 10,000m was Bekele’s priority but after securing that gold he decided to also contest the 5000m. And once more it was demonstrated that he has achieved such a status among his opponents that they never even dare to try to unsettle him with some unexpected move. Despite a really slow pace Bekele was allowed to lead the race more or less from start to finish and on the homestraight he managed to stave off also Lagat’s final challenge.

Strengthened by his two gold medals in Berlin Bekele ran his final two Golden League races – Zurich and Brussels – with a much more aggressive approach and thereby helped many other runners to improve which is clearly reflected on the world list where seven of the top eight times were set in these two races.

So the general conclusion for 2009 must be that the world elite at 5000m consists of two groups, one group is made up of Kenenisa Bekele and one group is made up of all the others who can finish in any order on a given day! This second group was dominated by Kenyans (12 of top-20) but also included three more Ethiopians, three US runners and one Ugandan.

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Ethiopians reigned in the women’s long distance running in 2009 like usual. But at least there was something new this year as the 2008 double Olympic champion over 5000m/10,000m, Tirunesh Dibaba, didn’t take part to the World Championships leaving the field open for others. Things seemed to go their usual way before Berlin with two Ethiopians topping both the 5000m and 10,000m world list, but after all there was a change at the medal podium in the end. Kenya and Ethiopia both grabbed three medals, but both golden ones and a silver belonged to Kenya this time. In the steeplechase it was finally a top finish for 34-year-old Marta Dominguez of Spain. The veteran who moved to the steeplechase last season after two silvers in the 5000m distance at World Championships, had been extremely unlucky in Beijing falling down in the Olympic steeplechase final, but had her reward in Berlin finally getting a golden finish she had been waiting for so long.

5000m

It wasn’t quite the record breaking season for 5000m last summer, but there still were some fast races. Two countries as usual combined for the 11 top spots in the 2009 world list. Kenya and Ethiopia have created a very strong dominance in the women’s long distance running which others are finding impossible to challenge. 24-year-old Meselech Melkamu of Ethiopia won in Ostrava in June clocking a world leading 14:34.17 time holding off a challenge from Kenyan Linet Masai who finished in 14:34.36. Double Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba later on took the world lead with a 14:33.65 win in London in July, but did not run in Berlin.

Only 22 athletes started in the Berlin heats to see only seven athletes dropped from the final. The final in Berlin was a slow one, but that didn’t change things at the top. Kenyans and Ethiopians dominated the race and there was a new winner at the finish line. 26-year-old Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot had finished second in Osaka two years ago and was now able to better that result with a gold medal in Berlin clocking 14:57.97. Sylvia Kibet finished in the silver medal position to give the upper hand to Kenya in these World Champs in 14:58.33. The reigning World champion Meseret Defar had to surrender this time finishing third in 14:58.41 while the first six places went to Kenya and Ethiopia.

Dibaba returned to competition at the World Athletics Final, but this time Defar was better clocking 15:25.31 before Dibaba’s 15:25.92 for second place. World champion Cheruiyot faded to third place this time in 15:26.21.

Japan has the best depth in this event with 17 in the world top 100. Kenya has 16 and United States 15 with Ethiopia in fourth at 14.

10,000m

There were a couple of new athletes under the magical 30 minutes limit in the women’s 10,000m this season. Meselech Melkamu of Ethiopia ran the world leading 29:53.80 African record in Utrecht, the Netherlands, in June and countrywoman Meseret Defar clocked 29:59.20 in Birmingham, Great Britain, in July.

The reigning Olympic and World champion Tirunesh Dibaba was supposed to defend her title in Berlin having earlier recovered from an injury, but she didn’t start the race in Berlin. It was another slow race and therefore several athletes had their shot at the gold medal during the final lap. With 400m to go there were no surprises with five athletes left, three Ethiopians and two Kenyans. It was a fierce battle in which just 19-year-old Kenyan Linet Masai emerged as the winner in 30:51.24 (*). Masai has made a quick leap to the world elite following her 30:26.50 World junior record which gave her the fourth place in Beijing at the Olympics last season. Melkamu was second in 30:51.34 (*), just 0.1 seconds off the winner and Ayalew Wude Yimer clocked 30:51.95 for the bronze. Meseret Defar competed in her first major 10,000m final and lost a medal in the last strides of the race. She seemed to have the bronze medal secured, but was surprisingly overtaken by two athletes during the last few metres to finish in fifth place. Read more

The greatest-ever cross country performer, with six IAAF World Championships long and five short course victories to his credit, took little persuading to return to Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, UK on 9 January 2010 for the IAAF XC Permit race.

“It’s a race I’ve always enjoyed because there is always a great field and of course I won my last World title there in 2008,” the 27-year-old Ethiopian said.

Bekele took the decision after that 2008 triumph to retire from the World Cross Country Championships.

“But cross country is still one of my favourite events and it will be a challenge to try to win in Edinburgh once again,” said the reigning Olympic and World 5000 metres and 10,000m track champion.

Bekele’s appearance in the Scottish capital will see him fully tested in a field which will include countryman Gebre Gebremariam, the reigning World Cross Country champion.

Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, the winner in 2005 is also returning for the nine-kilometres event.