Kenyan youngster to chase first Cross Country Tour win this season in Spain
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Reading Time: 3min | Fri. 28.11.25. | 21:32
The 19-year-old has finished runner-up thrice this season
Kenya's young runner Sheila Jebet will look to win her first World Athletics Cross Country Tour meet when she takes part at the Cross Internacional de la Constitución in Alcobendas on Sunday, 30 November.
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Jebet, 19, will be up against big wigs in the sixth Gold level event this season, where she hopes to ultimately win her first cross country race this year, since winning in Hannut in January.
The fifth-place finisher over 5000m at the 2024 World U20 Championships will attempt to do that when she faces a quality field that includes: Italy's Nadia Battocletti, Great Britain’s Megan Keith and Ethiopia’s Yenenesh Shimket.
Jebet and Battocletti faced over last weekend at the Cross Internacional de Atapuerca, where the former emerged victorious, winning the match-up and the entire race in a time of 22:21.
Jebet, on the other hand, was a close second timing 22:34.
The result for Jebet, who 17 minutes into that race pushed hard and led for a kilometer before being overhauled in the last 500m by the World and Olympic 10,000m silver medalist, was her third-straight runners-up finish this season.
Her task will have to be done the long way, as European 10,000m bronze medalist Keith will also be looking at avenging her fourth-place finish in that race in Spain.
Eighteen-year-old Shimket, fresh from a 35-second victory last Sunday in San Vittore Olona, strikingly has personal bests of 8:32.05 for 3000m and 14:48 for 5km.
The local challenge will be led by Laura Luengo, who finished 11th in the marathon at the World Championships, and recently clocked 30:59 on a downhill 10km course.
Meanwhile in the men's race, there will be delight for the rest of the field given the absence of Kenya's Matthew Kipsang, who is on a tear this season.
The Kenyan, who won his third race in a row last season, sits out this weekend's contest, which will be headlined by the battle between Burundi’s Rodrigue Kwizera and Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo.
Kwizera, twice undone by Kipsang in Soria and Atapuerca this season, has crossed the finish line in first place in Alcobendas for four years in a row, although his 2021 victory was not allowed to stand as he was not wearing his club’s vest.
This weekend the 25-year-old, alongside Ndikumwenayo, will be up against the likes of Eritrea’s Saymon Tesfagiorgis and Italy’s Yohanes Chiappinelli.
Eighteen-year-old Tesfagiorgis, who was a convincing winner in San Vittore Olona last weekend, competed in the 5000m at the World Championships, and has personal bests of 13:01.85 for 5000m and 27:10 for 10km.
European 10,000m and cross-country bronze medalist Ndikumwenayo has placed fifth, fourth and third in his past three races. He last won in Alcobendas in 2019, and will be keen to reclaim the top spot on the podium.
Former steeplechaser Chiappinelli will be racing for the first time since finishing sixth in the marathon at this year’s World Championships.
Ugandan duo Dismas Yeko and Samuel Cherop, fifth in the 5000m at last year’s World U20 Championships, complete the international field.
