Ugandan teenage long distance runner Jacob Kipliomo emerged the men’s overall winner at the Cross Internacional de Itálica in Santiponce, near the Spanish city of Seville. The Sunday run was the sixth leg of this season’s IAAF Cross Country Permit series and Kiplimo finished with a winning time of 27:48 from 9.9km to claim top honors. Another Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei and defending champion finished second with 28:04 timing to compound a good outing for Uganda that also had their Mande Bushendich finish sixth with 28:28 timing. Kiplimo was lagging behind before the fourth lap. A few seconds later it was his fellow country mate Cheptegei who was trying to track down his footsteps but once he had the lead, he could never let it go. Cheptegei was vying to beat Kiplimo for he was trying to match Matthew Kisorio’s (also Ugandan) achievement of back-to-back titles (2008 and 2009) but his younger compatriot could not let the feat be. “I decided to run conservatively for the first half of the race, and then I changed the pace and felt great until the end,” Kiplimo told the media. He also revealed that he will participate in the IAAF World Cross Country Championships Aarhus 2019 on 30 March. Cheptegei claimed that he unleashed just 85% of his potential but will return home in preparation for the Aarhus event. In the women’s pool, Kenya’s running bullet Beatrice Chepkoech emerged winner with a winning time of 28:01. Right from the onset, Chepkoech unleashed hot feet and in just one minute, only four athletes – Uganda’s Stella Chesang, Turkey’s Yasemin Can, Ethiopia’s Gete Alemayehu and Kenya’s Hellen Ekarake Lobun tried to match her pace.
