Arikan and Kaya ready for Chia duel

30 Novembre 2016

In the summer in Amsterdam they were separated by less than three seconds and now in Chia next month, Turkish stars Polat Kemboi Arikan and Ali Kaya will go head-to-head again at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships. And this tantalising, thrilling prospect has an even greater story to it… Kaya is the defending champion from Hyères and Arikan won gold 12 months earlier in Samokov when his teammate was second. If it is a battle to the line between these two gold medallists on 11 December, something will have to give and it could be another senior men’s race to remember.

Arikan and Kaya are part of a Turkish squad that has full teams in all six events in Chia, the final major athletics championships of 2016. They achieved a one-two in July in the 10,000m at the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam when Arikan (28:18:52) had just too much speed in the end for Kaya (28:21.42). And they both have brilliant Euro Cross records, with Arikan, 25, the silver medallist in Belgrade in 2013 before becoming champion a year later in a brilliant finish when both Kaya and him crossed the line in the same time. It was Kaya’s first senior Euro Cross medal having won the junior race in Belgrade. He missed out on the under-23 level to make an instant step up to the senior ranks where he triumphed in France in 2015 in 29:30. He is still only 22 and his victory in Hyères was by 11 seconds from a quartet of Spanish runners - Alemayehu Bezabeh, Adel Mechaal, Ayad Lamdassem and Ilias Fifa - and their rivalry will resume in Chia. Spain celebrated winning the team title and Fifa, who won European 5000m gold in the summer, Mechaal who took silver in that race, and Lamdassem are in their strong men’s squad once more, along with Antonio Abadia, Javier Guerra and Jose Espana. Abadia knows Arikan and Kaya only too well on the track as he won bronze behind them in Amsterdam in 28:26.07.

Turkey and Spain will be looking for medals throughout all six races at these SPAR European Cross Country Championships with Yasemin Can chasing more glory. Can had a track season to remember for Turkey as she won double European gold - with sensational victories in the 5000m and 10,000m in Amsterdam - but she will face tough competition from Spain’s Trihas Gebre and Alessandra Aguilar. Their Spanish teammate Carlos Mayo is back too, having won silver the last two years - in the under-20s race in 2014 and under-23 in 2015. In Hyères he was beaten by three seconds by Great Britain’s Jonny Davies, who will bid to defend his crown, and their duel will be another great confrontation.

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