At the 1988 Cross de San Sebastián Bekele fought against John Ngugi in a sprint finish, but ended the race as runner-up behind the reigning world champion. This represented a brief improvement of form for what would be his final international outing at the 1989 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. At that event held in Stavanger he finished thirteenth and, alongside Tesfaye Tafa, he lifted Ethiopia into third place in the team competition.