Kenyan youngster beats Megan Keith, among others, in women’s race as Innes FitzGerald sticks to her own age group in her first race of the winter.

Just 17, Cynthia Chepkirui stormed to victory in the senior women’s race at the Cardiff Cross Challenge on Saturday (Nov 8). Fresh from winning the Kenyan under-20 title in Eldoret a fortnight earlier, she is emerging as favourite to win the junior women’s title at the World Cross Country Championships in Florida in January.

Racing in the kind of bright and warm conditions that you might associate more with Florida than Cardiff in November, Chepkirui, who only turned 17 in September, won by 20 seconds over the twisty 6.4km course from fellow Kenya Sheila Jebet as Ceili McCabe of Canada was third.

It would have been interesting to see Innes FitzGerald, the European under-20 champion on the track and country, taking on Chepkirui in Cardiff. But the British teenager was tackling her first race since a three-week end-of-summer break and she enjoyed a 50-second victory in the combined under-20 and under-17 women’s race instead.

Leading Brit in the senior women’s race was Megan Keith, but the Scottish runner, who won here in 2023, was forced to stop briefly mid-race to dislodge a twig that had annoyingly become stuck under one of her spikes.

“On the second lap I got a bit waylaid with a bit of a stick in the bottom of my shoe so I had to stop pull it out,” she explained. “So the girls got away from me there but I tried my best to keep myself engaged and it was out of my control. It’s still a good run for my first individual race after having done the Scottish relays recently.”

Megan Keith 4th in the Cardiff Cross Challenge despite having to stop mid-race to dislodge a twig caught under her shoe.

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Keith wound up 50 seconds behind Chepkirui but is pleased with her fitness as she enters a spell of races between now and Christmas including the Liverpool Cross Challenge at the end of this month and, if she qualifies, the European Cross Country Championships in Portugal in December.

“I’m hoping to race this month in places like Spain,” the Edinburgh-based athlete added. “There are so many good races now it’s hard to choose which ones to do. It feels like a while since I’ve been out of the mud so it’s good to be back.”

Behind Keith, Poppy Tank was the next best Brit in fifth, followed by Sofia Thøgersen of Denmark, Amelia Quirk, Charlotte Dannatt and Megan Harris with Jess Gibbon completing the top 10.

With the exception of the national cross-country relays, the Cardiff Cross Challenge has become the traditional pipe opener to the British cross-country season and attracts an international field courtesy of its World Athletics Cross Country Tour Gold status.

With a slick organising team led by race director Graham Finlayson and good transport connections, Cardiff surely has a great case in coming years to be awarded the European Championships. The last time Wales hosted a world or European cross-country championships, after all, was the World Cross in Chepstow in 1976.

Similar to the women’s race, the top Brit home in the men’s event was also in fourth place with Zak Mahamed leading the domestic challenge in a race that saw a Kenyan one-two-three from Mathew Kipsang, Victor Kimosop and Stephen Kimutai amid a large field that included club runners from the Gwent League.

A 12:58.61 5000m runner on the track, Kipsang, 29, finished like a train to win by six seconds.

Close behind Mahamed, Jacob Cann was fifth followed by Richard Slade, Angus McMillan and Jesse Fokkenrood of the Netherlands.

“I’m really happy with the way I performed,” said Mahamed, who ran 61:44 in the Valencia Half two weeks earlier and now plans to run the Liverpool Cross Challenge next.

Holly Dixon and Jack Higgins won exciting one mile races that acted as British trials for the mixed relay at the Euro Cross.

Dixon took to the front in the women’s race and held off teenager Ava Lloyd with Lucy Jones third followed by India Weir, Niamh Bridson Hubbard and Khai Mhlanga. A high quality event saw British 1500m champion Sarah Calvert back in eighth.

“I just went hard from the start as I knew I wouldn’t out-kick some of those girls if I gave them a head start,” said Dixon. “I don’t always like to lead but I felt I had to today and I was running for my life, hoping the finish line would come as soon as possible.”

Cameron Boyek led the men’s race into the home straight but was passed in the closing metres by Higgins and Callum Elson as Will Barnicoat closed fast in fourth.

Higgins used his 1:45 800m speed to kick to victory. “It was very close down the final hill,” the Tonbridge runner said, “I was very close to Callum Elson and it was a case of digging deep and opening up my stride a bit, although I didn’t realise I’d won it until about five metres out.”

FitzGerald wasn’t the only impressive under-20 winner as Will Rabjohns won the men’s race by eight seconds from Quinn Miell-Ingram as Roel Damman was the first under-17 man home in fourth overall.

When finishing runner-up behind FitzGerald in the junior women’s race, meanwhile, Beth Lewis, finished top under-17 woman home as she held off under-20 athletes Isabel Holt and Lizzie Wellsted.

Both Rabjohns and FitzGerald have won in Cardiff in the past and FitzGerald said: “It was nice to get a hard run out before Liverpool and hopefully the Europeans. It’s been a while since I’ve raced so it was good to turn the legs over and get into that racing mindset.

“It might have been nice to be in the senior women’s or mile today but it’s my first race this winter and it’s quite good to compete in your age group and help to grow the competition in that environment rather than leave it as soon as you’re quite good.”

Whereas the Euro Cross in December is her big upcoming goal, FitzGerald might not compete at the World Cross in Tallahassee. “We haven’t written it off yet but it’s quite down the priority list at the moment,” she explained, “and sometimes too much travel can be a hindrance and I want to go to the best races that will help me grow as an athlete and get me ready for next summer, which is where it’s at.”

Like FitzGerald, Kara Gorman built up a big lead in her race as the Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow runner won by almost half a minute in the under-15 girls race.

In contrast, the under-15 boys race produced the closest finish of the day with Byron Roberts of Eastbourne Rovers AC pipping Elliott Langley-Aybar of Bracknell AC.

Madison Kindler continued where she left off last winter with another impressive win as she took the under-13 girls race for Brentwood Beagles by a comfortable margin. Sam Cousins of Radley AC, meanwhile, won the under-13 boys race ahead of Cardiff duo Jacob Moss and Zac Munn.

Full results here