L. MathekaCherono, Kwizera favourites in Venta de Banos
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Reading Time: 2min | Sat. 18.12.21. | 13:00
Uganda's Albert Chemutai and Ethiopia’s Zenebu Fikadu won the last edition of the even held in 2019.
Commonwealth Games 5000m finalist Eva Cherono headlines the senior women's race at the Cross Internacional de Venta de Banos, the seventh Gold leg of this season’s World Athletics Cross Country Tour, to be held on Sunday 19 December.
In the men's race Burundi's Rodrigue Kwizera will be the athlete to beat. The 22-year-old rising star remains unbeaten this cross country season and has so far won more than six races on Spanish soil.
The Burundian is now based in the Spanish city of Castellon alongside his compatriot and training partner Thierry Ndikumwenayo, who will also be in contention.
Cherono, a 2019 World Cross Country Championship team silver medalist, who finished eighth in the individual race at the same championship, is hoping to live up to her biling when she takes to the road at Venta de Banos, a small village of barely 6400 habitants placed some 260km away from Madrid.
The 25-year-old has improved her 10,000m lifetime best this year to 30:49.23 in Stockholm and made her cross country debut this season three weeks ago in Seville, when she had to settle for eighth.
Cherono will be joined by her compatriot Edinah Jebitok, a 1500m specialist credited with a 4:03.46 performance who made the Kenyan squad for the Tokyo Olympics.
The two are hoping to break the jinx that has seen Kenyan women miss out on the title since Mercy Cherono bagged back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013.
Ethiopia’s Spain-based Likina Amebaw Ayel should complete the podium on Sunday as she proved to be in fine form a fortnight ago in Alcobendas where she came third.
Spanish hopes rest on Cristina Ruiz, seventh in the U-23 race in Dublin last Sunday, and Laura Luengo, fifth in Alcobendas and 33rd in the senior European race.
Among past winners of this event are Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele (2004) and the reigning Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega, victorious in 2017 in the men’s event, while their fellow Ethiopian and current distance ace Letesenbet Gidey took the spoils here in 2018.
