Nadia Battocletti restarts from her beloved cross-country race
Nadia Battocletti and cross-country running, a love affair that is renewed year after year. The cross-country campaign kicks off for the Italian star, reigning European champion, awaiting a double date in Spain: scheduled debut on Sunday in Atapuerca, then seven days later she will be at the start in Alcobendas towards the European Championships on December 14 in Lagoa, Portugal, aiming to confirm the title won last year in Antalya at individual level and also with the team.
Protagonist of a resounding season on the track culminating in the two fantastic medals at the World Championships in Tokyo, silver in the 10,000 (as at the Paris Olympics) and bronze in the 5,000 meters, the queen of middle distance running returns to a specialty she has always adored and in which she has collected a fabulous series of successes: five European golds on the fields (two U20s, two U23s, one senior), the first woman in history to win in every category, in addition to silver two years ago. In the Gold leg of the World Athletics Cross Country Tour, the Fiamme Azzurre’s holder will compete again after triumphing in the last edition of the world circuit: ahead of everyone in the standings, the first Italian to do so, thanks to her victories at the Alcobendas cross, the European Championships in Turkey and the Campaccio in San Giorgio su Legnano.
It will be run from 12:45 p.m. Sunday over a distance of 7.318 kilometers, very similar to the 7.470 kilometer distance scheduled at this year’s continental event. It will be the fourth time in her career for the 25-year-old from Trento on the challenging course of the archaeological site of Atapuerca, at an altitude of almost 1,000 meters near Burgos, which is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site: 14th in 2019 when she was a junior, 12th in 2021 and sixth in 2022. Since then ‘StraordiNadia’ has grown exponentially to achieve outstanding goals, including a poker of European gold medals in less than a year: 5000 and 10,000 meters, cross and 10 km road.
Opponents include the name of last season’s winner Daisy Jepkemei, Kazakh by passport and Kenyan by origin, sixth at the last World Cross Championships in Belgrade and second recently in Seville. Also in the cast are 20-year-old Sheila Jebet (Kenya), second in Cardiff and Soria, with Britain’s Megan Keith, European bronze medalist in the 10,000 and U23 silver medalist at Piedmont 2022 also behind the Italian, and Burundian Micheline Niyomahoro (Nissolino Sport), fresh from her marriage to Italian marathon record holder Yohanes Chiappinelli. Announced at the start are some of the best Spaniards in the race valid for the national club championships, from Isabel Barreiro to Carla Gallardo, from European U23 3000 steeplechase runner-up Marta Serrano to European marathon silver medalist Majida Maayouf. In the men’s event favored is Kenyan Mathew Kipchumba Kipsang, who won Sunday in Soria.
