L. MathekaKenyan trio favourite at Elgoibar cross country
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Reading Time: 2min | Sun. 09.01.22. | 07:43
The World Athletics Cross Country Tour Gold meeting in the Spanish town of Elgoibar is set for Sunday 9 January.
World 3000m steeplechase champion and record holder Beatrice Chepkoech alongside world Under-20 cross country champion Beatrice Chebet headline a stellar field set to compete at the Cross Internacional Juan Muguer.
Edinah Jebitok, fresh from a fine runner-up finish in Madrid last week timed at 30:44, could complete a Kenyan clean sweep of medals at the Sunday event.
The World Athletics Cross Country Tour Gold meeting in the Spanish town of Elgoibar is set for Sunday 9 January with the women set to compete in a 7.7km race
Chepkoech, who has not been in action since finishing seventh in 3000m steeplechase at the Tokyo Games, will be looking to make it to the podium against stiff competition.
The seventh-place finisher at the 2019 World Cross Country Championships has not competed since the Olympic final and there is a question mark over her current form but this is a course she is well versed with, having finished third here three years ago.
Her stiffest opponent is likely to be her compatriot Chebet. The 21-year-old was the runner-up in 2020 in Elgoibar and has shown great consistency this season, with a second place finish in Atapuerca and respective third spots in Italica last November and Campaccio on Thursday 6 January in Italy.
Chebet lowered her lifetime bests to 8:27.49 for 3000m and 14:34.55 for 5000m on the track last season.
Trying to avoid the Kenyan dominance will be the Ethiopian pair of Fantaye Belayneh and Senbere Teferi. The 21-year-old Belayneh is a 14:44.51 5000m performer who placed fourth just behind Chebet at the Campaccio event on Thursday, while Teferi is a renowned 5000m specialist who ran 14:15.24 last summer. More recently, she finished fourth at the Italica cross country event.
Meanwhile, the Ugandan duo of Prisca Chesang and Esther Chebet should also be in the fight for top-five places. Chesang landed 5000m bronze at the World U-20 Championships in Nairobi and Chebet finished sixth in Atapuerca and seventh at the Italica meeting last November.
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