Portugal's Mariana Machado (© Getty Images)
Portugal’s Mariana Machado and Spain’s Nassim Hassaous will start as the athletes to beat at the Cross Internacional de Venta de Banos, the 12th Gold leg of this season's World Athletics Cross Country Tour, on Sunday (15).
Both athletes finished in the top 10 at last Sunday’s European Cross Country Championships in Antalya and will hope to carry that form with them to Venta de Banos in Spain.
Machado achieved the best senior performance of her career so far last weekend as she remained in the top 10 throughout the race in Antalya and found an additional gear to move up to sixth during the closing lap.
Prior to that, the 24-year-old finished eighth at the Cross Country Tour Gold meeting in Atapuerca on 27 October and won the national title on 24 November. She is the daughter of Albertina Machado, who finished fifth at the 1988 World Cross Country Championships in Auckland and was an Olympic finalist over 10,000m in Seoul that same year, and Mariana equalled her mother’s latter feat when she competed at the Paris Olympics in the 5000m.
A European U20 3000m silver medallist in 2019, Machado improved her lifetime best over the distance by running 15:05.77 in Liege in June.
While some of the World Cross Country Tour leaders may not make it to compete in Venta de Banos due to visa problems, Machado should still find tough opposition from Spain’s Carolina Robles, the Tokyo Olympic finalist who beat Machado by four seconds in Atapuerca to finish fourth. The Spanish athlete ran alongside Machado for the first half of the race in Antalya before slipping to 16th and Sunday’s contest might provide her with some minor revenge on the Portuguese runner.
Watch out too for the newly minted European U23 silver medallist Maria Forero. The 21-year-old Spaniard proved to be in superb form last weekend over the 6.3km race, although she will face a longer event (9.3km) on Sunday. Idaira Prieto, whose father Antonio became a two-time fifth-place finisher at the Madrid 1981 and Gateshead 1983 World Cross Country Championships, should also be in the hunt for a podium spot.
The large domestic squad also includes other members of the European Championships team, such as Cristina Ruiz, Carla Gallardo and Carla Arce.
Hassaous-Las Heras showdown
The men’s race will also be held over 9.3km and looks set to be a competitive fight between two athletes who managed team gold for Spain last weekend in Antalya: Hassaous and Aaron Las Heras. The former finished seventh there to equal his 2021 performance in Dublin and returns for his third appearance in Venta de Banos eager to improve on his sixth place back in 2021.
Las Heras, the 2019 European U20 5000m champion, has successively achieved 22nd and 17th places at the last two World Cross Country Championships, held in Bathurst and Belgrade respectively. After spending six years in the US where he got a degree in Biology at the Wake Forest University, the 24-year-old has returned to his native Spain to settle in Leon where he trains under Jose Enrique Villacorta, whose group also includes Forero. Las Heras is fresh from a 14th place in Antalya. The only other Hassaous-Las Heras clash from this cross country campaign came four weeks ago at the Italica meeting, where Las Heras prevailed over Hassaous by nine seconds.
Also on the hunt for a podium place will be European U23 10,000m bronze medallist Miguel Baidal, who was 38th in Belgrade, plus the 41-year-old Javier Guerra, a 2:07:27 marathoner back in 2020 who makes a record 15th appearance in Venta de Banos. They will be joined by Morocco’s Younes Kniya, who was 10th in Atapuerca this season, plus Eritrean teenager Amanuel Berhe and Portugal’s Rui Pinto.
This year’s competition poster features four-time world cross country silver medallist Mariano Haro following his death in July at the age of 84. Despite having just 6500 inhabitants, the small Spanish village of Venta de Banos has hosted this top-notch cross country event since 1980. Past victors include Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, Letesenbet Gidey and Selemon Barega.
Weather forecasters predict a sunny but cold day, with the thermometer in the 4-6°C range by the time of the event.
Emeterio Valiente for World Athletics
