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Daniel Ebenyo has been tipped as the favourite to win the Campaccio-International Cross Country, the Italian leg of the World Athletics Cross Country Tour Gold series, on Saturday, January 6, 2024.

Ebenyo was a sixth-place finisher at the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst in February last year before he won silver medals in the 10,000m at the World Championships in Budapest and the half marathon at the World Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia, in October.

Ebenyo also recorded a world best of 1:11:13 on December 17 in Kolkata, India, where he won the 25-kilometre race.

Meanwhile, Oscar Chelimo of Uganda will be his closest rival. The Ugandan will make his third appearance at the Campaccio after finishing third in 2021 and fourth in 2022.

Chelimo won the world 5000m bronze in Oregon in 2022 and finished third in the Cross Internacional de San Sebastian, a World Cross Country Tour Silver event, in November.

Burundi will be represented by an equally strong unit consisting of Celestin Ndikumana and Egide Ntakarutimana. Both will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Rodrigue Kwizera, who won last year’s race in San Giorgio su Legnano.

Ndikumana is a winner at the World Cross Country Tour Gold race in Amorebieta, while Ntakarutimana finished fifth in last year’s edition of the Campaccio.

European rivals

Nekagenet Crippa, Iliass Aouani, and Yohanes Chiappinelli are the Italians who will challenge the East Africans.

Crippa finished sixth in the Rome Marathon with 2:12:11 on his debut over this distance before he improved his personal best to 2:07:35 in Valencia in December. This meant that Crippa achieved a qualifying standard for the Olympic Games in Paris.

On the other hand, Aouani ran 2:08:34 on his marathon debut in Milan in 2022 and improved Eyob Faniel’s Italian record to 2:07:16 in Barcelona in 2023 before finishing seventh at the New York Marathon in 2:10:54. He was sixth in 2021 and eighth in 2022 in his previous two appearances at the Campaccio.

Chiappinelli, the 2018 European 3000m steeplechase bronze medallist, ran 2:09:46 on his marathon debut in Seville and finished 11th at the World Championships in Budapest in August.

Four-time Italian champion in the 3000m steeplechase, Ala Zoghlami, completes Italy’s list.