Among those attempting to beat him will be the same trio that chased him in the 10,000m at the European Athletics Junior Championships in Rieti – Dini, Bosnjak and Strelkov.
The race was extroadinary for many reasons.
Kaya, 19, not only won gold and broke the championship record but he did so by lapping the whole field.
Such was the Turkish star’s dominance in that final that Russian Mikhail Strelkov himself stopped with 400m to go thinking the race was over.
He thought he had won silver but had to keep on running.
The teenager who did finish second was Italy’s Lorenzo Dini ahead of Croatia’s Dino Bosnjak in third, with Strelkov battling back for fourth.
A race over 6km awaits them in Belgrade, and for Kaya the chance to show that he can deliver at this event as well as on the track.
The 19-year-old left the European Athletics Junior Championships after also winning the 5000m, and he remains one of the sport’s brightest young long-distance prospects.
However in cross country, experience can be as essential as stamina and Strelkov knows all about this event because last year in Hungary he was part of the Russian squad which won team gold.
Russia is likely to make it back onto the podium again, with four of last year’s winners including Strelkov taking part in the event again.
When a team which has won gold the previous year returns with so many members of that same squad, then the rest have to sit up and take notice.
The Russians proved the importance of finishing as a group last year, as none of their runners finished in the top nine with Poland’s Szymon Kulka winning in 18:43.
But with Bakharev in 10th in 19:03 and Strelkov in 11th in 19:04, they led Russia with 50 points edging out France with 51 and Great Britain with 54.
Lorenzo Dini knew how tough Kaya was in that 10,000m and his twin brother Samuele discovered it was the same outcome in the 5000m as he also took second behind the Turkish runner.
The Dini brothers will lead an eight-strong Italian squad in Belgrade where the third youngster from that Rieti 5000m, Great Britain’s Jonathan Davies, is also eying the title in Belgrade.