Jebet out to defends Cross Country title in Hannut

Kenya’s Sheila Jebet will face Uganda’s world U20 cross-country medalist Charity Cherop when she returns to defend her title at the Cross Cup de Hannut, a World Athletics Cross Country Tour Gold meeting, on Sunday, 25 January.

The pair will renew their rivalry over 8km after their respective first and third-place finishes in Hannut last year.

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Jebet went on to claim three second-place finishes and a third place in Cross Country Tour Gold races in November, in Cardiff, Soria, Atapuerca and Alcobendas, while Cherop focused on the track.

They have both raced once so far this year, 18-year-old Cherop opening her season at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee where she clinched a historic bronze medal in the U20 race and 20-year-old Jebet finishing second in the Cross Country Tour Gold event in Elgoibar last weekend.

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That performance saw Cherop become Uganda's first ever women's individual medalist at the World Cross Country Championships and she was joined on her nation’s team gold medal-winning squad by Bentalin Yeko who finished seventh and also races in Hannut.

Belgium won the senior women’s team title at the European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa last month and team members Jana Van Lent, who finished fourth, and Lisa Rooms, who was fifth, will race on home soil in Hannut.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s 20-year-old Keneth Kiprop heads to Hannut to contest the senior men’s 8km race, two weeks on from finishing 10th at the World Cross Country Championships.

He faces Eritrea’s 18-year-old Saymon Amanuel who was runner-up in Elgoibar last weekend and finished first and second respectively at the Cinque Mulini and in Alcobendas in November, plus Uganda’s Martin Kiprotich who finished second in the mountain classic race at the World Mountain & Trail Running Championships in September.

Milkesa Fikadu helped Ethiopia to bronze in the mixed relay at the World Cross Country Championships and he steps up in distance to race in Hannut.

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Belgium’s Cross Cup leader Guillaume Grimard finished fifth in Hannut in 2024 and returns, as does Luxembourg’s Ruben Querinjean, the 3000m steeplechase specialist who was sixth last year and placed seventh at the European Cross Country Championships.

Other steeplechasers in action are Germany’s Frederik Ruppert, who won the Diamond League title last year, and Belgian champion Tim Van de Velde.

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