Hellen Obiri wins the Campaccio women’s race
ELGOIBAR, Spain, Jan 12 –Steeplechase World record holder Beatrice Chepkoech and 5,000m World Champion Hellen Obiri will headline the women’s race at the Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza, the fifth leg of the IAAF Cross Country Permit series in the Spanish town of Elgoibar on Sunday.
Chepkoech beat Obiri to be crowned the 2018 Kenyan Sports Personality of the Year at Friday’s SOYA gala and though both were absent to receive their trophies, understandably in Spain for the race, they will square out against each other, again hoping for a side to side finish.
Obiri started the cross country season well and underlined her current form in Madrid on December 31 when clocking 29:59 on the slightly downhill San Silvestre Vallecana 10km course.
The 29-year-old will face stiff opposition from compatriot Chepkoech, who broke the world steeplechase record last year with her 8:44:32 clocking in Monaco.
Chepkoech is also an accomplished athlete in flat events as she proved at last April’s Commonwealth Games when the 27-year-old landed the 1500m silver medal in an outdoor PB of 4:03:09.
Beatrice Chepkoech anchors Kenya to the mixed relay title in Kampala
She anchored Kenya to gold in the mixed relay at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships Kampala 2017 but is generally less experienced at cross country than Obiri and is yet to beat her compatriot in their seven career outings against one another on the track.
The main danger to both women could come from 2016 European 5000m and 10,000m champion Yasemin Can.
The 22-year-old Turk is fresh from a convincing victory at the IAAF Cross Country Permit meeting in San Giorgio Su Legnano last Sunday and recently won her third successive European cross-country title.
Watch out too for Uganda’s Commonwealth 10,000m champion Stella Chesang. The 22-year-old last raced at the Zevenheuvelenloop 15km race in Nijmegen in November where she won in 47:19.
In the men’s race, the standout athlete on show will be Ethiopia’s rising star Selemon Barega who will be defending his title.
After his emphatic victory last year over fellow teenager Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, Barega went on to take the 3000m silver medal at the IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018.
He ended his track season at the IAAF Diamond League final in Brussels where he won the 5000m in a world U20 record of 12:43:02, moving to fourth on the world all-time list.
Selemon Barega after winning at the Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza
Elgoibar’s 10.8km race will be Barega’s second outing of 2019 as he raced last Sunday in San Giorgio Su Legnano where he was defeated by his compatriot Hagos Gebrhiwet after overcoming some problems at the start when his shoelace came undone.
Barega, whose victory in Elgoibar last year became the subject of Felix Sanchez Arrazola’s photo that won the ‘IAAF Photograph of the Year’ award, will have the hard task of beating Kenya’s world U20 10,000m champion Rhonex Kipruto.
The 19-year-old clocked 27:21:09 to take the title in Tampere and boasts an even more impressive 10km performance on the road as he clocked 26:46 in Prague last September to get within two seconds of the world record. More recently, Kipruto has been successful at two cross-country races in Kenya.
Kipruto and Barega, both of whom featured in the IAAF’s recent ‘Gen 10’ series of rising talents, have never raced one another before. Barega comes from a track background while Kipruto appears better suited to the roads, so cross country will be a neutral surface for what could be their first clash of many.
But they aren’t the only teenage talents in Elgoibar as they will be joined by Kenya’s Stanley Mburu Waithaka, who took 5000m silver at the World U20 Championships, finishing two places ahead of Barega.
The 18-year-old is fresh from a narrow win over Uganda’s Oscar Chelimo in Amorebieta last Sunday. His most recent performance before that was a world-leading 27:13:01 over 10,000m in November.
