BRUSSELS, Belgium - Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele won his sixth World Cross title and brought himself half-way to an unprecedented third straight World Cross "double" with his victory in the Men's 4K event, while Australia's Benita Johnson won her country's first-ever World Cross medal and established herself as an Olympic medal contender by winning the Women's 8K event at the 32nd IAAF World Cross Country Championships on Saturday.

Bekele, the World Champion at 10,000 meters, and Johnson, a bronze medalist at the last World Half-Marathon Championships, each used storming final laps of the muddy 2K circuit at Brussels' Parc de Laeken to seal their victories. Bekele, soaked by a driving rain, broke away from countryman, and eventual silver medalist, Gebre Gebremariam to win his third straight World Cross 4K title in 11:31. Gebremariam ran 11:36. The expected challenges from Kenyan's Abraham Chebii and John Kibowen and Kenyan-turned Qatari Saif Saaeed Shaheen, the former Stephen Cherono, never fully materialized.

Johnson for her part accomplished what USA's Deena Drossin could not in last year's championships in Switzerland - she broke free from Ethiopia's Werknesh Kidane, the 2003 World Cross Champion, with a powerful attack at the start of her final circuit of the sodden course, to win in 27:17. Kidane ended up third, in 27:34, behind teammate Ejagayhu Dibaba who ran 27:29.

Johnson, who finished 4th in the 4K event at World Cross in 2003, emerges as a serious contender at 10,000 meters in Athens with her victory. The 24-year-old, who plans to compete in the Women's 4K on Sunday, could become only the second women to accomplish that double. Ireland's Sonia O'Sullivan, wife of Johnson's coach Nick Bideau, accomplished the feat at the 1998 World Championships in Marrakech.

Bekele, an established master of such doubles having won the 4K and 12K titles at the last two World Cross Country Championships plus the Junior Men's title in 2001, lead Ethiopia's 4K men's squad to the team title with his run, one of the three team titles the East African nation swept in today's competition. Bekele's 4K squad tallied 17 points to defeat Qatar and Kenya who had 39 and 52, respectively. The Ethiopian Junior Women won with a perfect 10 point score as they grabbed the top four places in the race. Ethiopia's senior women edged Kenya 26-30 in the 8K.

The American effort was paced by its Junior Women's squad, which matched the country's best-ever finish with a fourth place result. The pack-running team established itself well in the early-going - leaving the Ethiopians and Kenyans to themselves yet running near the front of the "rest of the world" peloton - but couldn't match the strong middle lap racing of the bronze medal-winning Japanese team.

"We all stuck together and it was awesome," said top USA finisher Amber Harper, as freshman at Brigham Young University. "There were a lot of people yelling at us that Japan was the team right in front of us. I know I passed one of their gals towards the end."

Harper finished 24th in 21:58. She was followed closely by Allison Costello, 30th in 22:10, Amanda Trotter, 31st in 22:11, Jennifer Barringer, 35th in 22:19, Kathleen Trotter, 36th in 22:20 and Brittany Brockman, 62nd in 23:04.

Meselech Melkamu of Ethiopia won the Junior Women's race in 20:48 for 6K.

The USA Senior Women's team, medalists at the last two World Championships, finished a surprising fifth considering it ran with only a single returning member from either of those medal- winning squads. Great Britain took the bronze medal behind Ethiopia and Kenya with 74 points. France was fourth with 90, while the young Americans tallied 98 and the Australians had 99.

"I really didn't know what to expect," offered top USA finisher Katie O'Neill who finished 15th in 28:37. "It's sort of crazy with the crowd and the mud, and I couldn't get a sense of pace, so I decided to put as much effort into it as I could, and luckily, things worked out. I just kept looking up and tried to pass more people as I went along."

Kathy Newberry finished 25th in 28:56, Team USA Minnesota's Katie McGregor, a member of last year's bronze medal team, was 27th in 28:57, Anne Marie Schwabe was 31st in 29:05, Laura O'Neill was 38th in 29:27 and Molly Austin was 79th in 31:00.

Though the spread between the first and fourth members of the USA Men's 4K team - the scorers - was a mere twelve seconds, that squad could only muster seventh place team finish. 2003 USA 4K Champion and 2004 USA 12K runner-up Robert Gary led the team with a 33rd place finish in 12:12. Team USA Minnesota's Luke Watson was 36th in 12:17. Sandu Rebenciuc was 46th in 12:23, Jared Cordes was 48th in 12:24, Ian Connor was 58th in 12:29 and Isaiah Festa was 60th in 12:30.

"I think all of us thought we'd finish a couple notches higher," Watson said. "No one really blew up today, it didn't seem. I think we all had middle-of-the-road races. We needed a "low stick" and we didn't have that today. We had great depth today, we just didn't do as well as we would've hoped."

Racing resumes Sunday with the Junior Men's 8K at 1:15 p.m. local time followed by the Senior Women's 4K at 2:05 p.m, and the Senior Men's 12K at 2:45 p.m.