Marta Domínguez brings the home the European XC gold at home in Toro (© Hasse Sjögren)
The “28th Cross Internacional de Venta de Baños” (Spain) will take place this Sunday (16 December). For the occasion race organisers have brought together a quality field which includes no less than three top-ten men from last March’s World Cross Country Championships held in Mombasa while newly minted European XC champion Spain’s Marta Domínguez is the star name of the women's division.
Men – Ethiopians to take Mombasa revenge
The most illustrious contender is the the reigning World Cross Country bronze medallist Bernard Kiprop Kipyego. The Kenyan ace is due to make his 2007/2008 season cross country debut in Venta de Baños as he has only raced once on the road after his last track appearance, when he set an impressive 10,000m PB of 26:59.61 for fourth in Brussels last 14 September.
A former (2005) World Junior Cross Country silver medallist the 21-year-old Kipyego will have fellow Kenyan Michael Kipyego for company. An accomplished 3000m steeplechaser, Kipyego took a respectable 6th on the home soil of Mombasa and holds a 8:10.66 PB at his specialist event where he also clinched the World Junior crown back in 2002. Kipyego missed the Osaka Worlds as he had to settle for fifth at the Kenyan trials in Nairobi.
But the Ethiopian contingent will also be of high calibre as it comprises other top-ten finishers from Mombasa in the guise of 20-year-old Tadesse Tola and Eshetu Wondimu. Tola capped his summer season with the African Championships 10,000m silver medal in Alger one month prior to the Worlds in Osaka where he came 13th.
As for Wondimu, he is a successful road performer having set a fine Half Marathon PB of 1h00:08 last April in Berlin. More recently he ran superbly at the Seven Hills Run over 15km in the eastern Dutch city of Nijmegen where he placed runner-up in 42.36 only bettered by fellow Ethiopian Sileshi Sihine but well ahead of Sunday’s rival Bernard Kipyego, a distant third 1:06 adrift Wondimu on that occasion.
Spanish stars also on show
To add more interest to the event, the Spanish leading athletes from last weekend’s European Cross Country Championships in Toro will also be in the classy line-up. Chema Martínez and Jesús España finished 5th and 6th respectively in Toro to give Spain an undisputed team gold to break a four-year dominance by France.
The two Spaniards signed in Toro their best individual performances ever at the ‘Eurocross’ and should maintain their momentum to be close to the powerful African quartet.
Reportedly, both European track champions – Martínez over 10,000m in Munich 2002 and España in the 5000m in Gothenburg 2006 - have now only one focus for 2008 which is the Beijing Olympics but both have stated their intention of taking advantage of their current form to fight for the top spots on Sunday and at the ‘San Silvestre Vallecana’, a 10km road race held every year in Madrid on New Year’s eve (31 December).
Three-time European XC silver medallist Juan Carlos de la Ossa and Ayad Lamdassem complete the array of local hopes for the 10,575m event. De la Ossa missed the recent European Championships through injury and will be looking to make steady progress aiming for a spring Marathon while the Moroccan-born Lamdassem is the reigning Spanish 10,000m champion – beating De la Ossa in the process – but he’s still not eligible to represent Spain.
Women - Domínguez vs Kalovics showdown
The women’s event will be contested over 6375m and the athlete to beat should be local heroine Marta Domínguez. The 32-year-old is a Venta de Baños native and will obviously have the stongest support from the local crowd especially after her feat in Toro. Domínguez, who led the Sapniah women’s squad to its first ever team victory at the Europeans, faces the stiff opposition of Hungary’s Aniko Kalovics and Portugal’s Monica Rosa, who came 5th and 14th respectively in Toro.
Other entrants include Portugal’s Ines Monteiro (29th in Toro) Morocco’s Bouchra Chaabi plus three other Spaniards who snatched team gold last Sunday in the guise of Iris Fuentes-Pila (12th individually), Alessandra Aguilar (17th) and Sonia Bejarano (21th).
Weather forecasters predict a very cold and partially cloudy day with a high temperature of 5ºC, a low likelihood of rain and no wind.
Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF
