“Elgoibar Cross is in dire straits”

Berihu Aregawi and Beatrice Chebet They are the winners of this year’s Elgoibar Cross Country, with the participation of 900 athletes spread across all categories. He was also on the podium Soufiane El Bakkali, Olympic 3,000 hurdles champion in Tokyo 2020 and double world champion. A poster with top athletes hides a lot of work behind it. “I travel to all the major athletics championships that I can to keep in touch with the athletes and their representatives,” he assured World of sports the top leader of the Elgoibar Cross, Zigor Diez.

“The signing of Soufiane El Bakkali This is a dream I have had for many years and we started it in Budapest during the World Cup celebration,” he said excitedly. The Moroccan champion bathed a lot in the Basque Country. He didn’t stop signing autographs and taking pictures all weekend. This is the great attraction of a test that celebrated its 80th anniversary while maintaining its high level of organization. “It is more and more difficult for us to move forward. We organized it with a group of people very less and this year we will lose half the team. People are getting older and we need to make a generational change,” explained the race director, who held this edition with the help of more than 100 volunteers from the club and the town.

In Elgoibar There is a shared sense of ownership, where the crisis of the iron and steel industry in the 80s created a social need to encourage people to be comfortable. “Athletes feel the support they always want to repeat” – he said Zigor Diez– and they got it. The director takes care of everything himself, manages the transportation of the athletes, their hotel, food, takes care of sponsors, journalists, authorities and still has time to make the numbers and distribute them personally to elite athletes while they eat at the restaurant. of Txarriduna day before the exam. His phone is on fire, as is his head – which should be on everything.

“We have a cross that is admired all over the world, but what people don’t know is that we do it in a very delicate way, with less resources than other events and with the love we feel for this race, ” explains Díez, that He is worried about the future of the test. “He Cross of Elgoibar is found in a limit the situation”, he warned. “Either we make the generational change now or we run the risk of disappearing or being downgraded and becoming a local ordeal,” he added bluntly. Elgoibar is part of the highest category of World Athletics and it is considered one of the best crosses in the world, but it has less support than other races on the calendar. “We have support from institutions and we are very grateful, but it is not enough to maintain the level we have now. If we really believe, we have to bet big,” explained Díez. “I am clear about everything we need to be the best and I am ready to sit down with the authorities so they know our truth.”

Elgoibar received the athletes with a respectful aurresku next to Municipality, with music by local txistularis, with a dinner inside the town hall and a performance that is a bit of a party, like those there were on the day the Guass room filled the streets with atmosphere. An entertainment that was not lacking in the sports complex of Mintxeta, the only cross where you need to look (€6) and it also fills its stands. An atmosphere that more than explains it, must be experienced and dazzled by the greatest legends of this sport such as Kenenisa Bekele, Haile Gebrselassie, Abebe Bikila either Mamo Wolde. “We want to reach the centenary and continue to be proud of the name of Elgoibar and of Gipuzkoa around the world, but we need help immediately. This is not just another call, it is a wake-up call that must be done now, because we are one year away from celebrating the 81st edition,” he warned. Zigor Diezwho needs 10 months a year to prepare for this prestigious race celebrated on the first Sunday of January and he wants to continue organizing.