Eliud Kipchoge wins the men's junior race at the 2003 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Lausanne (© Getty Images)
Elgóibar, SpainWorld 5000m champion Eliud Kipchoge will compete for the first time in Spain at the ‘LXI Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza’ this Sunday (11 Jan).
“Once Bekele’s presence was not possible we focused all our efforts on signing Kipchoge; it’s not have been an easy task because he is now much valued as a World champion but we’ve got it” says proudly race organiser Antón Azpiazu.
At the IAAF World Championships in Paris last summer Kipchoge grabbed gold in a race billed as a showdown between Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele and Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj to deny them to be crowned dual gold medallists having previously won the 10,000m and 1500m respectively. In addition, the young Kenyan set a new championships record of 12:52.79, barely 18 hundredths off his PB, which is also the current World Junior record (Oslo, 27/7/03).
The 19-year-old Kenyan last raced cross country in Newcastle (UK) on 3 January placing second six seconds behind the in-form Ethiopian Sileshi Sihine but well ahead of countryman five-time World Cross Country champion Paul Tergat.
This Sunday, Kipchoge’s big threat should come from Uganda’s Boniface Kiprop, fresh from a massive 38-second win from Charles Kamathi in Amorebieta last weekend.
To add more interest to this Sunday’s race it’s should also be mentioned that Kipchoge snatched gold ahead of Kiprop in the junior race at the World Cross Country Championships held last year in Lausanne, a defeat which the Ugandan will be eager to avenge.
These two prodigious teenagers aside, the line-up also includes Kenya’s Abraham Chebii, fifth at the Worlds’ 5000m final and twice winner here in 2001 & 2002, his fellow countryman Bernard Chepkok, and Ethiopia’s Mulugeta Wondimu, sixth in Amorebieta. There is also an impressive Spanish contingent represented by European Cross Country silver medallist Juan Carlos de la Ossa, 10,000m European champion José Manuel Martínez, recent winner at a 10k road race in New Year's Eve from Portugal’s Rui Silva (28:12-28:34), plus 3:31.61 1500m specialist Juan Carlos Higuero.
Three-way battle in the women’s side
Last weekend, Ethiopia’s Merima Denboba was defeated by a two second margin by the unknown Kenyan Pamela Amisamuk in Fuensalida (Spain). Actually, Denboba lost her right shoe and lost crucial seconds putting it back on and resuming running.
Performing for the fifth time on Spanish soil this winter, Denboba will try to make up for that defeat to Amisamuk but finishing ahead of the Kenyan won't guarantee the win for Denboba as the starting list also includes Turkey’s Elvan Abeylegesse, who took silver at the Europeans in Edinburgh last December. The little Turk came fifth at the Worlds in Paris over 5000m in a PB of 14:53.56.
Kenya’s Pamela Kipchoge (sixth in Fuensalida), Portugal’s Jessica Augusto and Ethiopia’s Mestawat Tufa complete a classy women’s field.
