KAMPALA, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Uganda's Boniface Kiprop performed below expectation in the 2006 TDK Golden League over the weekend in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.

    Starting as one of the six top runners in his first 5,000m racethis season, the reigning Commonwealth 10,000m champion kept the pace with the top stars in the first four laps of the race, but his undoing was the attempt to overtake the stars from the inside lane in the race.

    The move saw him sandwiched by other runners, who slowed down his pace and stopped him from pulling away in the open lanes. By the time Kiprop got chance to squeeze his way out after over one lap of trying, the harm had already been done and he only managed a distant ninth position with a time of 13 minutes and six seconds.

    World champion Kenenisa Bekele also had a disappointing performance, beaten by Kenyan Isaac Songok about 150m away from the finish line.

    It was the Ethiopian's first loss over the 5,000m distance since the 2004 Athens Olympic Games when he was denied a double gold medal by Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj.

    The TDK Golden League features the world's best distance runners who contest for a slice of the 1-million-US-dollar jackpot. Enditem