Revenge as Olympic champ Jebet battles Aprot in Spain cross country

NAIROBI, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Revenge will be in the air when training mates Olympic 3,000m steeplechase champion Ruth Jebet of Bahrain meets Kenya's Alice Aprot during the international cross country meet in Marca, Spain on Sunday.

During their first meeting in Nov 12 in Seville, Aprot, who is the Africa Cross Country silver medallist, emerged the winner.

However, that will count for nothing when the two meet up in Marca, the third stop of the seven IAAF Cross Country Permit meetings for the 2017-2018 season.

"It is down to your preparations. I have done mine well and believe in the strides of my legs. Jebet is a strong challenger, and we have clashed severally on the track, but I have always had better endurance," said Aprot.

Alongside Aprot, Jebet will face Spain's Trihas Gebre and Portugal's Ines Monteiro.

Both Aprot and Jebet are eyeing a slot in their national team to compete at respective continental cross country meet.

Jebet will compete in Jordan for the Asian cross Country championships while Aprot is hopeful, she will be selected to compete in Chlef, Algeria for the Africa Cross Country Championships. Both events are in March and will be the culmination of the cross country season.

In the men's race, world U20 cross country champion Jacob Kiplimo from Uganda goes head-to-head with world U20 5000m champion Selemon Barega from Ethiopia and Leonard Komen of Kenya.

Komen, who has had poor performance last season due to injury problems, is back to his best form and will be eyeing to send a message by winning in Marca.

The IAAF cross country series has seven individual meetings in four different countries. Other races will be in Antrim (Britain), San Giorgio (Italy), Elgoibar, Seville (Spain), San Vittore Olona (Italy) and the final will be in Albufeira (Portugal) in February. Enditem