Kenya’s Mercy Chepkemoi was the show stopper at the 30th edition of the Cross Internacional de Soria, the fourth leg of the World Athletics Cross Country Tour Gold Series in Soria, Spain.
The 8km senior women’s race started at a slow pace led by a quartet of Burundi’s Francine Nyomokunzi, Chepkemoi, Sharon Chepkemoi and Marta Perez.
The four later broke away from the rest of the field as they dropped the Spanish 1500m record holder Perez.
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The leading group extended its gap to 17 seconds over Perez as they also dropped the World U20 3000m steeplechase bronze Sharon Chepkemoi who could not also handle the hot pace.
Mercy Chepkemoi engaged her gear further and only Nyomokunzi was able to keep up her pace with Chepkemoi. During the last lap Chepkemoi and Nyomokunzi increased their lead over Diana and Sharon Chepkemoi.
Mercy Chepkemoi tried to pull away from Nyomokunzi, but the Burundian athlete managed to keep up pace with her Kenyan rival
With 300m remaining, Chepkemoi pulled a surprise kick that the Burundian could not, surging ahead solo and cutting the tape in 26:48 with a lead of seven seconds over Nyomokunzi. Chepkemoi was left with no other option but to settle in third place 23 seconds later with Sharon Chepkemoi coming home in fourth in 27:28.
“It was not an easy race because of the hills but I felt quite strong. Today was my first outing in Europe and it’s very great for me to win this race,” said Chepkemoi.