European U23 cross country champion Maria Forero finished second on home soil at the Cross Internacional Venta de Baños on Sunday (21) afternoon.
Racing over a distance of 9.3km, almost four kilometres further than the U23 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa last Sunday, Forero finished second in 37:04 behind Kenya’s Dorcas Chepkwemoi who was the runaway winner in 36:09.
Forero graduates out of the age-group ranks next year and she will contest the senior race at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee on 10 January.
In the men’s race won by Kenyan teenager Brian Kiptoo in 31:43, last year’s winner Nassim Hassaous finished third in 32:10 just two weeks after clocking 2:08:44 on his marathon debut in the Valencia Marathon.
Elsewhere across the programme Maria Viciosa, who was a creditable 11th in the U20 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships last weekend, won the U20 women’s 4.175km in 18:08.
