Ethiopia’s Yenenesh Shimket and Burundi’s Rodrigue Kwizera stamped their authority at the Cross Internacional de la Constitucion – the sixth Gold meeting in this season’s World Athletics Cross Country Tour – in Alcobendas on Sunday (30).

On a cold but sunny day, 18-year-old Shimket beat Italy’s world and Olympic 10,000m silver medallist Nadia Battocletti, while Kwizera overcame the challenge of Eritrea’s Symon Amanuel to notch up his fourth victory in Alcobendas.

Battocletti and Britain’s European 10,000m bronze medallist Megan Keith took an early lead in the women’s 8.1km race while Shimket and Kenya’s Sheila Jebet positioned themselves close behind.

Battocletti, the European cross-country champion, then began to increase the pace but Shimket and Jebet seemed to run comfortably at her shoulder with Keith towards the rear of the lead quartet. About 14 minutes into the race, Keith lost ground on the leaders while the Italian maintained her relentless pace, closely followed by Shimket and Jebet.

Shimket seized her opportunity with three kilometres to go on the toughest section of the course and pushed hard to break away from Jebet and Battocletti with ease. The Ethiopian covered the penultimate 2.2km lap in 7:15 to open a seven-second margin on Jebet, herself another three seconds clear of Battocletti.

On the final lap, Shimket proved her win in San Vittore Olona last weekend was no fluke as she extended her lead. Battocletti managed to catch and leave behind Jebet before embarking on the final kilometre.

Shimket, having covered the final lap in 7:10, crossed the finish line 11 seconds ahead of Battocletti. Further back, Jebet kept Keith at bay to claim third.

Italy’s Yohanes Chiappinelli and Sweden’s Oliver Lofqvist were the early leaders in the men’s race, closely followed by Kwizera and Eritrean teenager Saymon Amanuel, two of the pre-race favourites.

At exactly the same hilly point of the course where Shimket had broken away from her rivals, 18-year-old Amanuel surged ahead of the field and quickly built a six-second margin on Kwizera and Uganda’s Samuel Cherop. The penultimate lap took the Eritrean just 6:18; by then, Kwizera was four seconds in arrears with Cherop in third another two seconds behind.

In a thrilling finish to the 8.1km race, the Burundian put in a desperate chase to catch Amanuel and he finally did so with about 650m remaining. The 26-year-old went on to finish six seconds ahead of Amanuel while Uganda’s Dismas Yeko overtook compatriot Cherop in the battle for third place.

“I’m very satisfied after my fourth win in a row here,” said Kwizera. “Although the Eritrean guy proved to be very strong, I remained confident of catching him and winning. After a busy November, tomorrow I’m flying back to Burundi to spend a month with my family, then I’ll travel to Ethiopia for a one-month stint before returning to Spain for the European Cross Country Team championships in February.”

(World Athletics)