L. MathekaIsmael Kipkurui ends Kenya's wait for junior gold as country wins 2023 men's cross country title
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Reading Time: 3min | Sat. 30.12.23. | 17:00
Kenya won the senior team gold ahead of Ethiopia and Uganda. Gold and silver went the same way in the U20 team event, with bronze going to the United States
Jacob Kiplimo ensured the men’s title at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships remained with Uganda as he claimed gold by beating defending champion Joshua Cheptegei in Bathurst.
Kiplimo, 23, had finished as runner-up to his elder compatriot at the last edition of the event in Aarhus in 2019. Four years on he was a significantly more experienced competitor and he had the endurance – on a day of stormy conditions – to outrun a field of stellar talents.
The young Ugandan, who had won a first senior global title 18 months after the previous World Cross Country Championships by earning world half marathon gold, covered the 10km course in Bathurst in 29:17.
The double Commonwealth 10,000m champion, who also has Olympic and world 10,000m bronze medals on his CV, checked over his shoulder several times before celebrating over the final 50 metres.
Cheptegei just held on to bronze, one place ahead of Kenya’s fast-finishing 2015 and 2017 winner Geoffrey Kamworor, with both being given a time of 29:37.
Silver, in 29:26, went to Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi, who finished the season top of the men’s 10km road race standings with 26:33, while Kenya’s Kibiwott Kandie finished fifth, some 20 seconds adrift.
Ismael Kipkurui became the first Kenyan in 12 years to win the men’s U20 title, finishing the 8km course in 24:29, one second ahead of his compatriot Reynold Cheruiyot, the world U20 1500m champion. Bronze went to Ethiopia’s Boki Diriba in 24:31.
Kenya won the senior team gold ahead of Ethiopia and Uganda. Gold and silver went the same way in the U20 team event, with bronze going to the United States.
Burundi’s Rodrigue Kwizera, men’s winner of the 2021-2022 World Athletics Cross Country Tour, had to share the honour with his compatriot Thierry Ndikumwenayo and Yann Schrub of France in the 2022-2023 edition.
All three achieved a perfect score of 3720 through their three best marks of the series.
Schrub, the European 10,000m bronze medallist, made his first appearance on the tour at the end of January when he won in Hannut and he went on to to win in Calzadilla and Albufeira in February.
Ndikumwenayo won in Soria, Atapuerca and Seville in the space of two weeks in November.
Kwizera made six appearances in the series and was triumphant on four occasions - in Amorebieta in October, Alcobendas in November, Venta de Banos in December and at Campaccio in January.
A strong start to the 2023-2024 series puts Kwizera in a good position to make a successful defence of the title.
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After the first eight races he has two wins to his credit, claimed at the Spanish venues of Soria on 19 November and Alcobendas a week later.
The six other races have gone to six different winners, with Celestin Ndikumana coming home first at Amorebieta-Etxano on 22 October, Kiplimo – recently recovered from injury – taking the title in Atapuerca a week later, Keneth Kiprop winning in Cardiff on 11 November, Ronald Kwemoi ending victorious in Seville a day later, Adriaan Wildschutt winning at Austin, Texas, on 30 November and Abdessamad Oukhelfen triumphant in Venta de Banos on 17 December.
On 10 December Schrub won a first senior European cross country title for France on a muddy course in Brussels.
Britain’s Will Barnicoat earned the U23 title, with Axel Vang Christensen winning a sprint finish to claim the men’s U20 title for Denmark.
By World Athletics
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