Rodrigue Kwizera defends his title against Thierry Ndikumwenayo, Charles Rotich and Oscar Chelimo when the top four from last year’s senior men’s race clash again at the Cross Internacional das Amendoeiras em Flor – the penultimate World Athletics Cross Country Tour Gold meeting of the season, in Albufeira on Sunday, 8 February.
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Three-time winner Likina Amebaw, who currently sits second in the World Cross Country Tour standings, leads the entries for the women’s race.
As has been the case many times in the past, the Cross Internacional das Amendoeiras em Flor again doubles as the European Champion Clubs Cup Cross Country.
Kwizera clinched his second victory in Albufeira last year, racing for his Spanish club Playas de Castellon. Making his season debut, the 26-year-old will renew his rivalry with Spain’s Ndikumwenayo, the European cross-country champion who is a two-time winner in Albufeira and who finished runner-up to Kwizera last year.
Kwizera heads into the race in second place on the overall tour standings. He finished first or second in four Cross Country Tour Gold races – in Seville, Soria, Atapuerca and Alcobendas – in November and the event in Albufeira is his first since then.
Ndikumwenayo, meanwhile, followed his European cross-country title win in Lagoa in December with an eighth-place finish at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee last month. He then placed fourth at the Cross Country Tour Gold meeting in Elgoibar.
The clubmates star in a rematch with Kenya’s Rotich and Uganda’s 2022 world 5000m bronze medalist Chelimo, who completed the top four in Albufeira last year.
