Addis Ababa, January 5, 2025 (FMC) — Ethiopia’s Olympic 10,000m silver medallist Berihu Aregawi lived up to his status as a pre-race favourite by capturing commanding victory at the Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza – a World Athletics Cross Country Tour Gold meeting – in the Spanish town of Elgoibar on Sunday (5).
The men’s 9.71km contest kicked off at a reasonable pace, the opening 400m on the track being covered in 1:11. The small lap witnessed the lead of Spain’s Adel Mechaal and Britain’s Alfie Manthorpe, while the favourites Aregawi and Rodrigue Kwizera ran comfortably close to them.
The first big loop was covered in a slow 6:47 but shortly afterwards Mechaal picked up the pace and the large lead group whittled down to seven athletes: Aregawi, Kwizera, Ethiopia’s Samuel Firewu, the Spanish trio of Mechaal, Miguel Baidal and Miguel Angel Martinez, plus Britain’s Tomer Tarragano.
The second loop was timed at 6:27 just before Aregawi moved to the front for the first time to push hard and only Kwizera, Firewu and Mechaal managed to follow in his footsteps, running in crocodile file. Aregawi then clocked a frantic 6:12 for the penultimate lap and by the bell he had built a two-second margin on Kwizera, the Burundian three seconds clear of Firewu, while Mechaal had already lost any podium chance and travelled 15 seconds in arrears.
The final circuit was thrilling as a powerful Aregawi continued to run aggressively but a brave Kwizera never surrendered and maintained his chances throughout, while Firewu ran lonesome in third. Finally, the two-time world cross country silver medallist Aregawi held off the challenge to cross the finish line one second ahead of his rival following a blistering 5:57 closing circuit.
“I had competed earlier this week in Madrid and the course is quite tough,” said Aregawi, “so I decided to be cautious for the first half, then I pushed hard and could get rid of Kwizera, who is a great rival.”
Following todays’s victory, Berihu Aregawi became the third athlete to take back-to-back men’s victories this century to match Kenyans Abraham Chebii, victor in 2001 and 2002, and Leonard Komon, who took the spoils in 2010 and 2011.
In the women’s race, Ethiopia’s Melknat Wudu finished second with the time of 26:31, behind Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet who clocked 25:49 to top the podium.