NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 6 – World silver medallist Margaret Chelimo of Kenya heads the women’s deep field at the 63rd edition of the Campaccio Cross Country to run January 6 in Italy.
Chelimo, who won world silver medal in the 5000m in October, clocking a 14:27.49 personal best in Doha, will take on compatriot Eva Cherono, who finished eighth at the World Cross Country Championships. She clocked a 14:40.25 5000m lifetime best in London last July.
The line-up also features Kenya’s Gloria Kite, who finished third at the Boclassic in Bolzano and clocked 8:29.91 for 3000m last year, and Ethiopians Alemitu Tariku, the World cross country U20 silver medallist and Foyten Hailu Tesfay, who finished 11th at World Cross Country Championships.
-Men’s race-
In the corresponding men’s race, the top Kenyan runner in the field is Robert Keter, who set the 5km world record in Lille in November clocking 13:22.
He will face stiff challenge from Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma who was born in 2000, managed to clock an Ethiopian record 8:01.36 in the 3000m steeplechase at the World Championships last year, finishing just 0.01 behind winner Conseslus Kipruto.
Another Ethiopian teenager in the field is 17-year-old Tadese Worku, who took silver in the U20 race at the World Cross Country Championships last year and won the Giro di Castelbuono road race in July.
The race will also reunite the podium finishers from December’s European Cross-Country Championships with champion Robel Fsiha from Sweden taking on Turkey’s Aras Kaya and Italy’s Yeman Crippa.
Fsiha, who fled Eritrea in 2013 and gained Swedish citizenship in December 2018, finished 17th at last year’s World Cross Country Championships.
Kaya won European cross-country silver to complete the full set of medals at the continental level following gold in Chia in 2016 and bronze in Tilburg two years later. Kaya also won European silver in the 3000m steeplechase in 2016.
