WXC Belgrade 24: Chebet explains her final spring towards gold

Mozzart Sport Kenya from Belgrade

At the very end of the Senior Women's race at the Cross-Country Championships in Belgrade, you could hardly see a better picture: Five out of six Kenyan women in the pole position, with three of them fighting for the podium. Eventually it was Beatrice Chebet who won and defended her title from Australia, but Lilian Rengeruk and Margaret Kipkemboi gave her a tough time until the very end.

WXC Belgrade 24: Clean sweep for Kenya as Beatrice Chebet defends her senior title

Beatrice Chebet won the title again, but it was close until the very end. The defending champion certainly remembered her fourth place in the Kenyan Cross Country Championships and decided to go for it with a sprint in the final meters.

“For me it was not easy. When you are a defending champion, everybody is expecting you to win again. And it’s not that easy since we have a strong Kenyan team. We knew we had Anges, Lilian, Margareth, we had a strong team, we trained together. It was tough at the National championship and I didn’t expect to defend, I just said to myself ‘I’ll do my best’ to defend the title. When we went into the last lap, it was so tough because we were all still together and that is when I decided to go for it and sprint” said the world champion.

“I’m really happy, I don’t know how to explain it. It’s my first silver medal this year, since 2017 when I had bronze. It was really tought since Chebet was there, Margaret also… everybody was strong and we finished top five all Kenya” said Lilian Rengeruk.