BARCELONA, 29 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Kenyan athlete Beatrice Chebet, Olympic champion in 5,000 and 10,000 meters during the last Paris Games, will be the main attraction of the Cursa dels Nassos in Barcelona this December 31, in whose men’s race the also Kenyan Matthew Kipkoech Kipruto will be the favorite, after the injury of Spaniard Thierry Ndikumwenayo.
After breaking the women’s world record and the men’s European record in 2023, the Cursa dels Nassos will redouble its efforts against the stopwatch with a stellar line-up. Not in vain, it was already chosen as the best 5 kilometer race in the world according to the ranking prepared by World Athletics and, in addition to the aforementioned Chebet record, it still holds the men’s world record, which in 2021 was achieved by the Ethiopian Berihu Aregawi with 12:49 .
From 4:20 p.m., all eyes will fall on Chebet, who returns to Barcelona with the aim of improving his own record and having made a qualitative leap in the last 12 months. To summarize her 2024: she won her second consecutive cross-country World Cup, she became the first woman in history to go under 29 minutes in 10,000 meters (28:54.14), she won that double of 5,000 and 10,000 at the Olympic Games. . of Paris and won the Diamond League final.
The Ethiopian duo of Medina Eisa and Melknat Wudu will make the victory more expensive. The first is the current under-20 5,000 meter world champion, as well as seventh at the Paris Games, and has a best time of 14:16.54, the under-20 world record. The second is also the under-20 world record holder, in her case 3000 meters on short track (8:32.02).
Esther Guerrero will be the main Spanish asset, with the ambition of improving her personal best of 15:45. Thus, the Catalan will face other leading women in Europe such as the French Agathe Guillemot (continental bronze in 1,500) and the Belgian Jana van Lent, fifth in the recent European cross-country competition.
In the men’s event, Ndikumwenayo was dropped at the last minute due to an injury. The long-distance runner from Castellón wanted to debut in the Cursa dels Nassos the bronze that he won in that same European cross country, his second continental medal of 2024 after the bronze in the 10,000 meters.
Ndikumwenayo was going to attack the European 5 km record in the same setting where the Swiss Dominic Lobalu achieved it in 2023. It was going to be the icing on the cake for a sensational year in which he has broken the Spanish 5 km records (13:17 ), 10,000 meters (26:49.49) and 15 km (42:16), and in which he will finish as the European leader of 5,000 with 12:48.10.
But without him, now the favorite will be Kipkoech, bronze in the last Under-20 Cross Country World Cup. The young Kenyan will have a tough rival in the Norwegian Magnus Tuv Mihre, European runner-up in cross country in Brussels 2023 and accredited with a time of 13:09.44 in 5,000 meters.