Watch the World Cross Country on the BBC (all times GMT) Sunday 20 March BBC TWO from 1630 Dibaba storms to world gold

Bekele clocked 11 minutes, 33 seconds on the sun-drenched course in France to push Kenyan duo Abraham Chebii and Kiprono Songok into second and third.

The Olympic and world 10,000m champion will now seek to defend his long course title over 12k on Sunday.

Bekele has struggled for form since the death of his fiancee Alem in January.

This is much more significant than my Olympic victory Kenenisa Bekele

The 22-year-old slumped to a pair of defeats at high-profile indoor meetings at Boston and Birmingham since the tragedy.

And Bekele was forced to dig deep to retain his cross country crown after being tested at the St Galmier race course.

Former Kenyan Saif Saaeed Shaheen, now running for Qatar, burst away from the field at the 2km-mark but Bekele reeled him in and reached the finish line unchallenged.

"This is much more significant than my Olympic victory because I had really suffered as a result of the tragedy," said Bekele after the race.

"Winning was more difficult than last year, as the course was tougher and I was grieving."

Bekele spearheaded an Ethiopian team gold with Kenya second and Qatar third.

Veteran John Mayock was the first Briton past the post, coming home in 53rd with a time of 12:33.