Bekele joins greats with distance double

BEIJING (Reuters) - Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele cemented his position as the world's leading long distance runner and joined some exalted company when he clinched an Olympic double on Saturday.

The 26-year-old added the 5,000m title to the 10,000m he retained last Sunday -- he holds the world record in both -- to match the likes of Lasse Viren of Finland (1972, 1976), Czech Emil Zatopek (1952) and compatriot Miruts Yifter (1980).

"This is very special for myself and my country," said the three-times 10,000m world champion, who with Tirunesh Dibaba swept all four men's and women's long distance events for Ethiopia in Beijing.

"It was a fantastic day for me. I was so happy to achieve this performance ... It's not easy to achieve double gold in the Olympics."

Bekele, who ran with his brother Tariku and compatriot Abreham Cherkos for much of the race, had wanted a quick race but said the Ethiopians had changed their tactics early on.

"We discussed the race beforehand but we did not do what we said we would," he said.

"We talked about maybe after five laps going faster, but we started earlier, from the beginning, after one lap. We changed the plan during the race and I'm sorry the other Ethiopians don't have a medal."

Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge, who won the 5,000m title at the age of 18 to prevent Bekele doing the world championship distance double in Paris in 2003, said he just had to accept that he was outpaced over the final lap.

"In 2004 I won a bronze," said the 24-year-old. "This is a silver. Maybe in 2012 it will be a gold. Slowly, slowly."

Bronze medalist Edwin Cheruiyot Soi admitted that, at the moment, Bekele was just too good.

"There were many good competitors in today's race but especially Bekele," he said. "There is a big gap between us, but we think we will train harder and we can narrow the gap one day."

Bekele said it was too early to say whether he would follow compatriot Haile Gebreselassie, a twice Olympic 10,000m champion who never won the double at a Games, into running the marathon.

"Look at me, I'm still young," he said.

(Additional reporting by Liu Zhen, Crispian Balmer, Catherine Bremer, Edwin Chan and Gene Cherry; Editing by Alex Richardson)