Jacob Kiplimo and Beatrice Chebet win the World Cross Country Championship and Spain is close to winning a team medal (4th)

In a year in which the athletic calendar is saturated with events, Spain took advantage of the absence of good specialists to take oil from one of the sports with the greatest national tradition, cross country. Jacob Kiplimo and Beatrice Chebet They revalidated their crowns at the World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade and confirmed their superiority by running in the field, a specialty suitable for African athletes and which had been nationalized Thierry Ndikumwenayo as the main rival of the Spaniard in his ninth place and running in the leading group until the last lap. Spain came close to winning the team medal in the men’s table by finishing fourth – the first non-African country – and also came close in the women’s classification with fifth place overall.

Thierry Ndikumwenayo, born in Burundi and has a Spanish passport by nature card since November 2022, is the main star of the nine members of the absolute team that the RFEA went through in the capital of Serbia. Ndikumwenoyo, who lives in Castellón, has adapted very well to the hot cross country in the morning with temperatures above 25ºC and with dry grass and very few difficulties. The Spaniard managed to stay in the leading group, made up entirely of African athletes, until the bell of the last lap. Ugandan Kiplimo, who is defending the title, jumped out of the group like lightning and with his demonic speed he broke all ties to escape alone in search of his second absolute crown after achieved in the last edition of Bathurst (Australia ) in 2023. Kiplimo He crossed the finish line in 28’09, followed by the Ethiopian Berihu Aregawi, second with 28’12 and the Kenyan Benson Kiplangat, third with 28’14. The Spaniards managed to be fourth as a team thanks to the ninth position of Ndikumwenayo (28’36), the 17th place of Aaron Las Heras with 29’08, 34th of Fernando Carro (29’51), 39th of Miguel Baidal (29’59) and 61st of Nassim Hassous (30’41).

In the women’s event, the great winner was Beatrice Chebet who, like the men’s champion, defended his world title in Belgrade with a 31’05 advantage over his compatriots Lilian Rengeruk (31’08) and Margaret Kipkemboi (31’09). In fact, the Kenyan dominance was so great that the top five finishers were from this country and took the title of the team with the greatest possible dominance (since only the results of the top four finishers from each country were counted). None of the Spanish athletes stood out among the best in the test, but they all ran very strong and accumulated 126 points to be fifth in the general classification, surpassed only by Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and the United States. Carolina Robles (24th) the best of the Spanish, followed by Irene Sánchez-Escribano (26th), Majida Mayouf (37) and Isabel Barreiro (39th).