Aregawi wins Elgoibar for the third year running; Yavi takes the women's race
Eight days after his World Cross silver, Berihu Aregawi won the Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza in the Basque Country; Winfred Yavi won by over a minute.
Photograph: Berihu Aregawi in the 5000 m at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, by Filip Bossuyt, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsBerihu Aregawi won the Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza in Elgoibar on Sunday for the third year in a row, covering the 9.71 km course in 29:33. World Athletics noted that only Mariano Haro had won the Basque race three times in succession before him. Eritrea's Saymon Amanuel was second in 29:40 and Spain's Said Mechaal third in 30:09, with Thierry Ndikumwenayo fourth and Uruguay's Santiago Catrofe fifth.
Aregawi had taken silver at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee eight days earlier. In Elgoibar, a Gold-level meeting on the World Athletics Cross Country Tour, he let Mechaal do the early work; the Spaniard, fresh from a national 10 km record of 27:25 in Valencia, cut the lead group to eight. Amanuel took over before halfway with Aregawi on his heels. Around the 22-minute mark Aregawi went, dropped Amanuel and held a seven-second gap to the line.
Winfred Yavi, the Olympic steeplechase champion from Bahrain, won the women's 7.62 km in 25:23, her first win here after a third place years earlier. She led from the gun, got clear of Kenya's Sheila Jebet before 3 km and finished 1:06 ahead. Tunisia's Marwa Bouzayani was third in 26:49. Spain's Isabel Barreiro beat Britain's Lucy Jones by one second for fourth.
Three straight wins for the same man says something about him, and about a course that rewards whoever is willing to run the hills honestly.
Sources: World Athletics.
