Kamworor, Cheptegei set for battle in hot conditions

The harsh weather conditions and the terrain will be the difference as athletes line up for titles at the 2023 World Cross Country Championships on Saturday at Mountain Panorama in Bathurst, Australia.

Former five-time world cross country champion Paul Tergat said the weather conditions may not be humid but will take a toll on some athletes.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe termed the course as a special and iconic venue for motor racing while Tergat shared the same sentiments, saying the battle could be reduced to mental toughness.

Kenya team assistant coach Shem Kororia said despite being a tough course, they will all run under the same conditions and he doesn’t see the reason why Kenyans should not prevail.

But all said and done, there seems to be a lot of focus on the senior men’s 10km race considering the calibre of names here in Bathurst. However, one thing is for sure— it’s going to be an East African affair pitting Uganda, Kenya or Ethiopia.

Here, the 2019 senior men’s 10km race champion Joshua Cheptegei seems to be the talk of the town as he takes on Kenya’s two-time champion Geoffrey Kamworor and compatriot Jacob Kiplimo, runner-up four years ago.

Kamworor will have the company of world half marathon silver medallist Kibiwott Kandie and Diamond League champion Nicholas Kipkorir, while Ethiopia’s spinners will be Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega and world 5km record-holder Berihu Aregawi.

Burundi’s Rodrigue Kwizera, who was 11th at the 2019 World Cross and won last season’s World Cross Country Tour will equally be seeking to make a statement.

For Cheptegei, Bathurst offers an opportunity for the 26-year-old to follow in the footsteps of stars such as Kamworor, Ethiopian great Kenenisa Bekele and official event ambassador Tergat.

In an interview, Cheptegei said he has learnt his lessons after disappointment at his home edition of the World Cross Country Championships in Kampala in 2017, when he struggled before finishing 30th.

He said the flop in 2017 not only made him stronger but also a better athlete. Cheptegei was triumphant in Aarhus two years later as he won a first world cross country title to go with his world 10,000m silver from 2017 and two Commonwealth Games titles from 2018.

Since then, he has become an Olympic and world champion, winning the 5000m in Tokyo and the 10,000m in Doha and Oregon, while he has also set world records in both disciplines.

Kamworor equally seems to have the same plans for winning.  With injury struggles behind him, the 30-year-old – winner of the U20 world cross-country title in Punta Umbria in 2011 before his senior wins in Guiyang in 2015 and Kampala in 2017 – will look to regain the crown. 

He said he is using the cross country as a build-up for the London Marathon and will try and give it his best. 

 Kandie, the former World Half Marathon record-holder, is another strong bet for Kenya and by virtue of being the team captain, he may want to lead by example. 

However, the Ethiopian legion can’t be ruled out and will be looking to regain a team title claimed in 2013, 2015 and 2017.

Leading the way is Barega, who made world finals in the 5000m and 10,000m in Oregon and then finished second in the Great North Run half marathon in September before starting his year with a win at the Elgoibar Juan Muguerza Cross Country.

His world cross career features two fifth-place finishes – one in the senior race in 2019 and another in the U20 event in 2017.

In the women’s senior 10km race, Letesenbet Gidey starts favourite. The Ethiopian was in sensational form in 2020 and 2021, setting world records of 14:06.62 for 5000m and 29:01.03 for 10,000m.

She had to settle for bronze at the Olympic Games at the longer event, but she prioritised global honours over records in 2022 and was rewarded with her first world title on the track, winning the 10,000m in Oregon in a nail-biting race.

The 24-year-old is now focused on winning her first individual senior world cross-country title. She won back-to-back U20 crowns in 2015 and 2017, joining an elite club of athletes to achieve the feat, alongside Faith Kipyegon and Genzebe Dibaba.

Gidey finished third in the senior women’s race in 2019 and earned gold in the team competition, but this time she heads to Bathurst as one of the big favourites. If her performance at the Jan Meda Cross Country – Ethiopia’s trial event for the World Cross – is anything to go by, Gidey is certainly in the form to challenge for gold in Bathurst.

Gete Alemayehu with a 1:06:37 half marathon will be the other athlete to watch in the race. She was second in the trials, just ahead of 30:06.01 10,000m performer Tsigie Gebreselama and bronze medallist in the U20 race in Aarhus in 2019. 

But Gidey and her Ethiopian compatriots won’t have an easy ride, as they’ll be up against other top names including Eritrea’s Rahel Daniel, who has dominated the World Athletics Cross Country Tour and currently tops the season standings thanks to her three victories last month. 

Beatrice Chebet is the other athlete to look out for. The Kenyan took 5000m silver at the World Championships last year and won the U20 women’s title at the 2019 World Cross in Aarhus.

She is also an African, Commonwealth and Diamond League 5000m champion, and is a former world U20 champion on the track.

She has raced just twice in cross-country events since the end of the track season but won both of her races. She won by 13 seconds in Atapuerca in November and by 15 seconds at the Cinque Mulini in January.

In the absence of Chebet at the Kenyan trials, teenager Grace Loibach Nawowuna was a surprising winner of the senior women’s race, beating Olympic semifinalist Edinah Jebitok by four seconds. The Kenyan team also includes two-time world cross-country champion Emily Chebet and Agnes Ngetich.

Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba missed the peak of the 2022 track season through injury, but still managed to win three races on the Wanda Diamond League circuit, and then triumphed at the Venta de Banos Cross Country in December.

In her latest appearance, though, she was a distant fifth in Elgoibar, some 47 seconds behind Daniel.

Stella Chesang, the 2018 Commonwealth 10,000m champion, was a dominant winner of the recent Ugandan Cross Country Championships and is keen to improve on her 21st-place finish at the 2019 World Cross. She is joined on the Ugandan team by world U20 5000m bronze medallist Prisca Chesang.