By Damian Zane BBC, Addis Ababa

Bekele (centre) is now a double-winning champion

At the weekend in Switzerland Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele became the first runner ever to successfully retain the short and long course World Cross Country titles.

Sports journalists are already making comparisons between him, and arguably the world's best athlete, compatriot Haile Gebrselassie.

But the country's authorities prefer to keep their new star under wraps.

It is just not the Ethiopian way to go shouting about talent - especially when it is not fully developed.

And it has to be remembered that this is only the beginning of 20-year-old Bekele's career. Just a few years ago, he was living in a small rural town in the Arsi region in the south of the country.

But his explanation for his passion for running is the stuff of all boyhood dreams.

"When I saw Haile running, I thought that perhaps one day I could be like him," Bekele told me before he went to Lausanne.

I have won so many times now that I know I'm going to win again Kenenisa Bekele

Unlike most boys with similar fantasies, Kenenisa never let go of his vision - but his ambitions to be an athlete did not chime with his parents' wishes.

"They didn't encourage me to become a runner," he said.

"They wanted me to be a good student and then hoped I would become a professional - maybe a teacher or a doctor.

"They are happy now, because they've seen my picture on the television and read about me in the newspaper."

Bright beginnings

Bekele ran his first competitive race for his local regional club when he was 15, but added he could not remember whether he came fourth or fifth.

Bekele says he is scared of no-one

His excuse for not winning is that all the other runners were much older than he was.

But by 17, he was regularly winning regional junior cross-country races, and in 2000 he won his first national junior cross-country race over four kilometres. Soon after he was winning senior races in Europe.

Then, in 2002, he achieved the unprecedented feat of becoming the senior world cross-country champion over both the short and long courses in Dublin - titles he has just successfully defended.

No fear

"I have never been scared of the other runners, no matter how good their record," he said.

"I have won so many times now that I know I'm going to win again, I am confident of that."

However, if the comparisons between Kenenisa and Haile are going to be taken seriously then success at either 5,000m or 10,000m is essential.

Bekele has never proved himself inside a stadium, and his attempts last year to make a name for himself on the track failed because of an Achilles injury.

"Running cross country and running on the track are completely different," he admitted.

"I find the track difficult, and to do well you have to be experienced. I don't have that track experience so we'll have to see how it goes."

Over the next two years, there are three tests: the World Championships in Paris, the All-Africa Games in Lagos and the Olympics in Athens.

Only success at these three will prove if Bekele can measure up to the man who inspired him.