A few weeks ago, on October 27, Thierry Ndikumwenayo crossed the finish line with a crooked face. The Spanish athlete, who has lived in Castellón for five years, failed in his attempt to break both the national and European half marathon records in Valencia. His ambition cost him to stay three seconds behind Carlos Mayo’s record. But athletics soon offered a revenge and a few weeks later, on November 17, Ndikumwenayo was proclaimed champion of Spain in a Cross of Italica in which he also defeated the double runner-up in the world, the Ethiopian Berihu Aregawi. From asphalt to dirt. A transition that culminated this Sunday, in Antalya (Türkiye), with great success: the bronze medal in the European cross country competition. The man from Castellón, somewhat physically weakened, led Spain’s team victory, which became the team with the most gold medals, nine, in this competition.
The race was dominated at will by Jakob Ingebrigtsen. The Norwegian has no rival in the cross country. There are already three gold medals in the European cross country competition (2021, 2022 and 2024). The favorite, who had just trained at the altitude of the Sierra Nevada, was always in the lead and when he wanted to, this time with 700 meters to go, he started running at a pace of 2m 28s per kilometer to overtake the Italian Crippa and Ndikumwenayo, who came from behind, climbing positions, until reaching podium positions. The Spaniard was struggling to match the Italian, whom he had defeated without problems in Italica. The problem was that I was running with very strong pain in my lower back. Ndikumwenyo, 27 years old, who already won European bronze last summer in the 10,000m, even thought about retiring, but endured the inconvenience as best he could to finish with the bronze medal.
Ndikumwenayo became the leader of an outstanding Spanish team: Nassim Hassaous entered seventh; Abdessamad Oukhelfen, eighth, and Adel Mechaal, tenth. Now, if the discomfort subsides, Ndikumwenayo plans to return to the asphalt again. The next challenge for the athlete who has just started training with Lluís Torlà, a former walker, will be to try to beat the European 10 kilometer record of Frenchman Ettien Daguinos (27:04) and compete in the Cursa dels Nassos, in Barcelona, the last day of the year.
If Ingebrigtsen swept the men’s race, Nadia Battocletti did so in the women’s race. The Italian was much superior and, while her rivals suffered, she seemed to be whistling in the leading group. On the last lap he gave a jerk to which no one was able to respond. Not even Koko Klausterkalfen, the German long-distance runner who had been practically missing for two years due to an injury and who was the one who lasted the longest on Battocletti’s back, revived her. The Italian, born at the foot of the Alps, daughter of an Italian and a Moroccan woman, culminates an exceptional year in Turkey with this title of European cross country champion, the two gold medals, in 5,000m and 10,000m, of the European track, in Rome, and the silver medal at the Paris Olympic Games in the 10,000m. The Spanish were far behind and the best, sixteenth, was the Sevillian Carolina Robles.
The title of Spain, which had not won as a team since 2015, straightened out a very weak morning where only the joy of María Forero’s silver medal in the under-23 category had come. The athlete from Huelva, who trains in León with José Enrique Villacorta, is one of the great promises of Spanish athletics and in 2021 she was European under-20 champion.
