Charity Cherop and Keneth Kiprop win senior races as Brits Kate Axford, Cari Hughes, Zak Mahamed and Innes FitzGerald impress ahead of Euro trials
Ugandan duo Charity Cherop and Keneth Kiprop won the senior titles at the Cardiff Cross Challenge on Saturday (Nov 9) but this was a meeting packed with multiple sub-plots and storylines.
British athletes Kate Axford, Cari Hughes, Izzy Fry and Zak Mahamed showed good fitness a fortnight ahead of the European trials in Liverpool.
Innes FitzGerald showed she is in fine form ahead of defending her European under-20 title in Turkey in December.
Olympic 1500m finalists Niels Laros and Stefan Nillessen demonstrated that cross-country is an important part of their winter plans as they the Dutch duo flew into Britain to get stuck into the senior men’s race.
Rubbing shoulders with the elite runners in the World Athletics Tour and young athlete age-groupers chasing British Athletics Cross Challenge points, grassroots club runners were in abundance as part of the Gwent Cross Country League.
Top four women (l to r): Sheila Jebet, Charity Cherop, Kate Axford, Cari Hughesene
Kiprop defends men’s crown
Kiprop out-sprinted Vincent Mutai to win the men’s race in 2023 and the Ugandan teenager repeated the trick again to take his second consecutive victory under grey skies at the Llandaff Fields venue.
After winning last year he went on to win bronze in the 5000m at the World Under-20 Championships in Lima and the 19-year-old will doubtless be aiming to make his mark in senior track championships in 2025.
A group of eight runners broke away early on over the 9600m course. Such was the pace, Laros, who was sixth in the Olympic 1500m final with a sub-3:30 performance, was detached in the chasing group.
The lead pack was gradually whittled down, though, with Kiprop kicking clear of Mutai of Kenya and fellow Ugandan Dan Kibet to win by two seconds in 27:06.
Burundi runners Célestin Ndikumana and Emile Hafashimana were fourth and fourth with Ireland’s Efrem Gidey enjoying a fine run in sixth and Britain’s Zak Mahamed seventh. “I’m happy with that run,” said Mahamed, “as it was a very strong field.”
In eighth was Younes Kniya of Morocco whereas Logan Rees of Fife enjoyed a great run in ninth as he finished just ahead of Laros with fellow Dutch runners Robin van Riel and Nillessen 16th and 18th.
Mahamed ran a half-marathon PB recently and like most leading Brits in Cardiff he is aiming for the European trials in…
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