Kenenisa Bekele in Zurich for the Weltklasse 2009 (Photo- Weltklasse Zurich 2009)

Ethiopia's five-time world champion Kenenisa Bekele remained in the hunt for a share of the USD 1million jacpot after running a world leading time in the 5000m to take victory at the Weltklasse 2009- IAAF Golden League meeting- in Zurich, Switzerland on Friday evening.

Kenenisa clocked an impressive 12:52.32 in a dominant display of front running to take victory ahead of Kenya's Edwin Soi and American Dathan Ritzenhein, who clocked 12:56.27, a north American record.

Victory at the Leitzingrund stadium in Zurich means that Kenenisa is in contention to share the golden league jackpot along with American sprinter Sanya Richards, who run a world leading 49.87 to win the women's 400m; and Russian Pole Vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, who improved the world record for the women's pole vault to 5.06m, on Friday night. Jamaican Kerron Stewart, the other athlete in contention for the jackpot, suffered a surprising defeat in the women's 100m.

World record attempts fails, but Kenenisa supreme
Kenenisa had indicated before the race that we would attempt the world record at the 5000m. And until the 2000m mark, the 27-year old had looked in contention to improve his own record time of 12:37.35.

However, Kenenisa slowed down in the following two kilometers, but still managed to hold on to victory quite comfortably at the end and clocked the fastest time in the world this year.

"Of course it is good to remain in the jackpot race, but I wanted a faster time today," said Kenenisa. "I was hoping for a 7.37 spolit at 3000m. Otherwise everything was OK and I was able to control the race as planned. Now I'm thinking more about fast times in the future."

Kenenisa will fly back to Addis Ababa tomorrow morning to continue his preparations for the last golden league meeting, the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels next Friday (4th September).