Spain’s Playas de Castellon will be looking to take the European Champion Clubs Cup Cross Country senior men’s team title for the third successive year in Albufeira, Portugal and will have two of the top three from the 2024 race on the start line on Sunday (2).
Twelve months ago, Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships 10,000m bronze medallist Thierry Ndikumwenayo became the first man to win ECCC Cross Country titles as both a senior and U20 athlete and he will be again wearing the Spanish club’s now-familiar green vest.
It has been an outstanding year since he triumphed on essentially the same 9.28km course on Portugal’s Algarve coast last February and his achievements since then include a second continental medal when finishing third at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in December.
Into the bargain, Ndikumwenayo clocked 59:42 on his half marathon debut in October.
Los mejores clubes de España en Albufeira 🇵🇹
— atletismoRFEA (@atletismoRFEA) January 30, 2025
Este finde competirán hasta 7️⃣ clubes 🇪🇸 en la Copa de Europa de Cross por Clubes 🙌🏼
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La Previa👇🏼 https://t.co/Aobpw3Cx9W
However, to retain his title Ndikumwenayo will have two hold off once again the two men who finished directly behind him in 2024, his Playas clubmate and two-time champion Rodrigue Kwizera as well as Atletica Casone Noceta’s Oscar Chelimo, who has been second the last three years.
Spain-based Kwizera, who still represents Burundi but is in the process of obtaining Spanish citizenship, won the ECCC cross country title in 2022 and 2023 and was the first man home at the Spanish cross country championships last Sunday while competing as a guest.
His win in the southern Madrid suburb of Getafe also showed he had recovered fully from a mid-January bout of ‘flu.
Kwizera and Chelimo - brother of world half marathon record-holder Jacob Kiplimo who won that this event in 2019 - were just one second adrift of Ndikumwenayo 12 months ago, after an enthralling duel over the second half of the race before the latter found another gear in the final 300m metres.
However, it was Chelimo who was given the verdict for second place and the Ugandan, who won the 5000m bronze at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, will no doubt be very motivated to finally move up to the top rung on the podium.
Rono and Rotich to head Portuguese challenge
On paper, the trio of medallists from 2024 look a class apart from most of the rest of this year's field, - with 88 runners entered from 23 clubs and 17 countries - but Portuguese club Benfica have recruited the Kenyan international Gideon Rono who was eighth at the 2024 World Cross Country Championships – one place in front of Ndikumwenayo – who could mix it with the trip of medallists from 2024.
Rono also finished third in the high-quality World Athletics Cross Country Tour in Hannut, Belgium last Sunday to show he’s in good form.
Benfica also have the former European U20 and U23 3000m steeplechase medallist Etson Barros, who finished 11th in 2024, in their team.
Another outstanding Kenyan runner wearing Portuguese club colours will be Charles Rotich, who was sixth in the World Cross Country Championships U20 last March, is in the squad for the 15-times men’s champions Sporting Clube de Portugal.
However, there is a strong emphasis on not just the individual race but the team title.
Playas de Castellon will be looking to become the first club to win three consecutive titles since compatriots Bikila did so from 2012-14.
Benfica finished third last year and fourth in 2023 and are also perennial contenders for the podium along with their compatriots Sporting Clube de Portugal, whose last triumph came in 2018, and they finished second in 2023 before drifting down to fifth last year.
Ales Cevennes Athletisme, team gold medallists in 2016 and the only French club to win the title since 2001, finished fourth last year and could also provide a medal challenge along with Italian club Atletica Casone Noceta who were third in 2022 and 2023 before finishing sixth 12 months ago.
The ECCC Cross Country also incorporates the 48th edition of the Cross Internacional das Amendoeiras em Flor, a World Athletics Cross Country Tour Gold meeting.
All the races from Albufeira are being streamed live on the European Athletics website from 9.55am local time (09:55 UTC/10:55 CET) with English-language commentary.
Phil Minshull for European Athletics