Birmingham, UK – As habits go, this is a what you would call a good one. For the third time in five years Kenenisa Bekele graced the Norwich Union Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham this afternoon by taking one of Haile Gebrsalassie’s World records.

In 2004 it was the 5000m and last year the 2000m. But today the World and Olympic 10,000m champion broke the two mile best set here by Gebrselassie in 2003, a mark that Bekele himself missed by just 0.43s in 2006.

Chasing 8:04.69, Bekele stopped the clock at 8:04.34 to claim his $US30,000 reward after shrugging off the challenge of steeplechaser Paul Koech with a 29.74 last 200m. “It’s great here in Birmingham,” he said. “It was not easy today but I knew I could do it. Paul was very close but I knew I had a fast finish in me.”

Koech did what most fail to do when racing the Ethiopian and chased Bekele almost all the way to the line. He was rewarded with a Kenyan record of 8:06.48. There were PBs for Abraham Chebii of Kenya and Ethiopia’s Bekama Daba in third and fifth and a Swedish record of 8:36.74 for Erik Sjoqvist in eighth.