Bekele broke a record that has stood since 1998

The 21 year-old world 10,000 metres champion clocked a time of 12 minutes, 37.35 seconds at a meeting in Hengelo in the Netherlands.

The previous world record was held by Bekele's fellow Ethiopian and training partner Haile Gebrselassie.

Bekele was just outside the previous best at the bell, but produced an astonishing final lap of 57.8 seconds to beat the previous mark of 12:39.36.

"The race was very difficult because because I had to run out of pace. I had to run alone," he said.

Countryman Mulegeta Wondimu, who ran with Bekele for more than two minutes, came home in second.

"Kenenisa isn't Jesus because he can't walk on water, but on almost any other surface he is unbeatable," said his Dutch agent Jos Hermens.

Gebrselassie is confident Bekele will also strip him of his 10,000m world record in Ostrava next week.

"You saw what happened. He can break my record, no problem," said Gebrselassie.