Previews16 Apr 2021


Athletes set for Cross Country Permit season finale in Albufeira

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Thierry Ndikumwenayo in action at the World Cross Country Championships Aarhus 2019

The condensed 2021 World Athletics Cross Country Permit season will come to a close in Albufeira, Portugal, on Sunday (18), with a reduced field racing at the 44th edition of the Almond Blossom Cross Country.

The entry lists feature 40 athletes in the men’s race and 20 in the women’s, with Thierry Ndikumwenayo of Burundi, Uganda’s Hosea Kiplangat, Spain’s Fernando Carro and Azucena Diaz and Ethiopia’s Likina Amebaw among those competing in Portugal’s Algarve.

Ndikumwenayo, who finished ninth in the 2019 World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, won the Cross Internacional de la Constitución in Alcobendas, Spain, that same year. He will be joined in the men’s race by Ugandan cross-country champion Kiplangat – sixth in the under-20 race in Aarhus – and Spanish Olympian Carro, who also raced at the World Cross and claimed European 3000m steeplechase silver in 2018.

Bulgaria’s Mitko Tsenov and Estonia’s Deniss Salkauskas are also entered along with Brazil’s Paulo Paula and Emil Danielsson of Sweden.

Rui Pinto was the top Portuguese finisher in this event last year, when he placed fourth in a race won by Kenya’s Davis Kiplangat. He returns, as does Rui Teixeira, who finished one place behind his compatriot in 2020, and Eduardo Mbengani – sixth at the last edition.

Carro’s fellow Spanish Olympian Diaz is also in action after her seventh place at the Spanish Cross Country Championships and is joined by her compatriot Clara Vinaras.

Amebaw will be returning to the country after a win over 10km on the roads in Ibiza in a 32:40 PB at the end of last month.

A live stream of the event – which is named after the white blossom which appears on the almond trees in the region – will be available to watch via the Algarve Athletics Association website at aaalgarve.org, starting at 09:45 local time.

World Athletics