World-record holder Kenenisa Bekele, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist at 10,000 meters, will compete at the 2005 Reebok Boston Indoor Games on Jan. 29, organizers announced today. It will be the first race ever in the United States for the 22-year-old Ethiopian.

In making the annoucement, organizers did not specify which event Bekele will contest in Boston.

"If anyone will ever challenge Haile Gebrselassie to the title of greatest distance runner in history, it,s Kenenisa Bekele," said Mark Wetmore, meet director and president of Global Athletics & Marketing, Inc., in making the announcement. "To get Bekele here, in his prime, just a year after Gebrselassie says a lot about the respect athletes have for both the event and the Boston fans."

Bekele agrees. "I am very excited to be coming to Boston for my first competition in your country," he said. "Haile told me what great fans you have."

Two weeks prior to his Boston track appearance, Bekele is slated to compete in the View From Edinburgh International Cross Country race in Edinburgh, Scotland, on January 15. There he will face the world 3000 meter steeplechase champion Saif Saaeed Shaheen.

In 2004, Bekele broke Gebrselassie's world records at both 5000 and 10,000 meters, as well as the 5000 meter record indoors.

Last week, organizers announced that Swedish star Karolina Kluft, the world and Olympic champion in the heptathlon, would be competing as well.