Legendary marathoner Kenenisa Bekele is not hanging his spikes anytime soon as he gears up for the Valencia Marathon. He is among the hot favorites and much anticipated for a surprise comeback.  

The 41-year-old has been in the game for more than 20 years and he will be hoping to maintain his legacy once he takes on the starting line of the event.

He opened his season at the London Marathon where he failed to finish the race and he will be hoping to rise from the ashes in the streets of Valencia. The 2019 Berlin Marathon champion will be facing off against a very quality field.

Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei will be making his debut in the streets of Valencia with the hope of a podium finish.

The Kenyan charge will be led by former world half marathon record holder Kibiwott Kandie, Titus Kipruto, and Alexander Mutiso who triumphed at the Prague Marathon earlier this year.

Bekele will be joining his compatriots Sisay Lemma and Leul Gebresilase and the trio will seek to finish in the podium bracket.

Bekele will have his work cut out considering he is yet to win a race since reigning supreme at the Vitality Big Half Marathon in 2020. He finished third at the Berlin Marathon and sixth at the TCS New York Marathon.

In 2022, the Ethiopian legend finished third at the Great North Run and went ahead to finish fifth at the Berlin Marathon when Eliud Kipchoge broke the world record.

Kelvin Kiptum’s course record time of 2:01:53 that he set last year could be in danger with the quality field that has been assembled.

Ethiopia’s Likina Amebaw and Burundi’s Rodrigue Kwizera confirmed their supremacy at the Cross Internacional de la Constitucion, the sixth Gold meeting in this season’s World Athletics Cross Country Tour, in Alcobendas, Spain.

Italy’s multiple European U20 and U23 cross-country champion Nadia Battocletti set the pace in the women’s 8.1km event. Shortly after reaching the opening kilometre, just six athletes remained in close attendance: compatriot Anna Arnaudo, the Ethiopian pair of Amebaw and Asayech Ayichew, Kenya’s Lucy Mawia, Hungary’s Lili Anna Vindics-Toth and France’s Alessia Zarbo, the latter being the first casualty some seven minutes into the race.

The Italian’s relentless cadence progressively paid off as firstly the Hungarian steeplechaser and then her compatriot Arnaudo could not live with her kind of pace and the race became a four-woman fight between Battocletti, Amebaw, Ayichew and Mawia when the clock read 11:30.

During the penultimate loop, it became apparent that Mawia hadn’t fully recovered from the injury that forced her to drop out in the closing stages last weekend in Soria and began to falter while Ayichew emerged as a strong leader and pushed hard before reaching the bell, the last circuit taking 7:37. By then, Ayichew and Amebaw led with Battocletti a couple of seconds behind, but the Italian managed to reel in the Ethiopians and catch them a few hundred metres later.

With just over a kilometre left, Battocletti’s resistance came to an end. Spain-based Amebaw made her decisive move with about 700 metres to go, gradually opening a big gap on Ayichew.

Amebaw eventually crossed the line five seconds clear of her compatriot thanks to a 7:18 superb last circuit. Ayichew placed second, 12 seconds ahead of Battocletti with Mawia taking fourth spot.

“I felt a bit uneasy and heavy at the beginning but then I began to feel much better,” said Amebaw. “I like this kind of course, full of ups and downs, I really enjoy them; my next cross country competitions will be in Aranda de Duero (3 December) and Cantimpalos (10 December) before resuming the World Athletics Cross Country Tour in 2024. I’m also targeting a quick time over 10km in the coming months.”