Kimeli headlines Elgoibar men's field as Serem, Yihune renew rivalry

Olympics and World Championships finalist Nicholas Kimeli leads a stellar field at the Cross Internacional Juan Muguerz, a World Athletics Cross Country Tour Gold meeting, in the Spanish town of Elgoibar on Sunday 9 January. 

The 10.8km race has the 23-year-old, who narrowly missed the Olympic 5000m bronze medal in Tokyo, as the man to beat, on paper.

Kimeli who finished eighth at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, boasts lifetime bests of 12:51.78 for 5000m and 26:58.97 for 10,000m on the track. His last apperance came at a 10km road race in Herzogenaurach where he finished fourth in a PB of 27:22.

Another Tokyo fourth-place finisher in contention will be Ethiopia’s 3000m steeplechaser Getnet Wale. The 21-year-old was also fourth at the Doha World Championships and holds an impressive 7:24.98 performance over the 3000m indoors.

Two rising stars in Ethiopia’s Addisu Yihune and Kenya’s Amos Serem will feature. The former was the world’s quickest U-20 athlete last year thanks to a 12:58.99 clocking, although he had to settle for fourth at the Nairobi World U-20 Championships. 

Meanwhile, Serem grabbed the gold medal in Nairobi in the 3000m steeplechase. The 19-year-old holds a 8:20.26 career best over the distance but he managed that performance at the 1795m altitude of Nairobi. 

The pair are in top form as they proved at the Campaccio permit on Thursday 6 January, when Yihune took top spot and Serem finished third. Uganda’s 16-year-old Rodgers Kibet, seventh at the Nairobi World U-20 Championships over 5000m, completes the African squad.

Some of the finest Spanish cross country specialists will also be on show, led by Nassim Hassaous who was seventh at the European Cross Country Championships in Dublin. The 27-year-old is fresh from a third place timed at 28:05 in the San Silvestre Vallecana one week ago.

He will be joined by Adel Mechaal, Raul Celada and Yago Rojo. Mechaal finished fifth at the Tokyo Olympics over 1500m, while Celada came 15th in Dublin last month. More recently, he clocked 28:34 in the aforementioned Madrid New Year’s Eve race, where Rojo defeated him in 28:27.

In addition to the elite events, there will be a strong U-20 race with representatives from England, Belgium and Portugal in the fight for the Mamo Wolde prize, an award created in 2003 in memory of Ethiopia’s legendary two-time Olympic marathon champion. He is fondly remembered in Elgoibar after winning in 1963, 1964, 1967 and 1968.

Additional information by World Athletics.