Rodrigue Kwizera wins in Alcobendas (© Asociación ADOC)
Italy’s Nadia Battocletti and Burundi’s Rodrigue Kwizera are the marquee athletes at the Cross Internacional de la Constitución – the sixth Gold level event of this season’s World Athletics Cross Country Tour – in Alcobendas on the outskirts of Madrid on Sunday (30).
Battocletti and Kwizera took commanding wins in Alcobendas last year on their way to winning the overall titles on the World Athletics Cross Country Tour.
World and Olympic 10,000m silver medallist Battocletti won convincingly in Atapuerca last weekend on her season’s opener. This weekend the European cross-country champion will line up against a quality field which includes the likes of Kenya’s Sheila Jebet, Great Britain’s Megan Keith and Ethiopia’s Yenenesh Shimket.
Jebet, a fifth-place finisher over 5000m at the 2024 World U20 Championships, finished runner-up to Battocletti in Atapuerca while Keith was fourth. Both Battocletti and European 10,000m bronze medallist Keith are building up for the European Cross Country Championships on 14 December and Alcobendas will be their last stops before that encounter in Lagoa.
Eighteen-year-old Shimket, fresh from a 35-second victory last Sunday in San Vittore Olona, has PBs of 8:32.05 for 3000m and 14:48 for 5km. The local challenge is led by Laura Luengo, who finished 11th in the marathon at the World Championships and recently clocked 30:59 on a downhill 10km course.
Kwizera has crossed the finish line in first place in Alcobendas for four years in a row (although his 2021 victory wasn’t allowed to stand as he wasn’t wearing his club’s vest). The Spain-based Burundian kicked off this cross country campaign with a tight victory in Seville but then had to settle for the runner-up spot in Soria and Atapuerca.
This weekend the 25-year-old will be up against the likes of Eritrea’s Saymon Tesfagiorgis, Italy’s Yohanes Chiappinelli and Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo. Eighteen-year-old Tesfagiorgis, who was a convincing winner in San Vittore Olona last weekend, competed in the 5000m at the World Championships. He has PBs of 13:01.85 for 5000m and 27:10 for 10km.
European 10,000m and cross-country bronze medallist Ndikumwenayo has placed fifth, fourth and third in his past three races. He won here in 2019 and will be keen to reclaim the top spot on the podium.
Former steeplechaser Chiappinelli will be racing for the first time since finishing sixth in the marathon at this year’s World Championships. Ugandan duo Dismas Yeko and Samuel Cherop, fifth in the 5000m at last year’s World U20 Championships, complete the international field.
Notable past winners here include Portugal's 1993 world cross-country champion Albertina Dias (1996), Eritrea's former world half marathon record-holder Zersenay Tadese (2005), Kenya’s 2016 Olympic 5000m champion Vivian Cheruiyot (2009), Ethiopia’s Olympic marathon champion Tamirat Tola (2015) and Uganda’s two-time world cross country champion Jacob Kiplimo (2018).
Weather forecasters predict a partially cloudy and windless day on Sunday with temperatures ranging between 9-11C at the time of the event.
Emeterio Valiente for World Athletics
