Niyomukunzi targets third Amorebieta cross title
Winner in 2021 and 2024, Francine Niyomukunzi meets Likina Amebaw again on Sunday over 8.7 km. Mirriam Cherop completes a strong African line-up.
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Two former winners meet with the same ambition. On Sunday 18 October 2026 in Amorebieta, Spain, Francine Niyomukunzi will try to win the Cross Internacional Zornotza for the third time. The Burundian won in 2021 and 2024; Ethiopia's Likina Amebaw, also expected on the start line, triumphed in 2023 and 2025.
Niyomukunzi already back in cross country form
The women's race will be run over 8.7 kilometres. It is the second Gold meeting of this season's World Athletics Cross Country Tour, an international cross country circuit. Niyomukunzi arrives with a win already in the bag: she took the 15 kilometres at Lidingö, at the circuit opener in Sweden.
That result marks a change from her previous outing on the road. The Burundian had finished 18th in the 5 kilometres at the World Road Running Championships in Copenhagen. On Sunday she will therefore face an opponent who finished well ahead of her there: Amebaw won that race in 14 minutes 41 seconds.
Amebaw switches surfaces again
Before her road title, the Ethiopian had won the 5,000 metres at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest, six days earlier. Two victories on two different surfaces therefore precede her return to Amorebieta. Her status as favourite also rests on her two wins at the Spanish meeting, in 2023 and 2025.
The duel will not be closed to the other contenders, however. Kenya's Mirriam Cherop already has one cross country win this year, achieved in Albufeira in February. She then took third place in the mile at the World Road Running Championships in Copenhagen. Over that distance of roughly 1.6 kilometres, her medal highlights her speed; it does not in itself say how Sunday's 8.7 kilometres will unfold.
Local history and recent form
Niyomukunzi and Amebaw have both won in Amorebieta. Their latest results, though, give them two different starting points: the former has already won on cross country courses this autumn, while the latter arrives after her track and road titles.
For spectators, the question will be which of them can carry that momentum over the Spanish distance, under pressure from Cherop. Nothing is settled: their past successes help to frame the race, not to write the result before the start.
Original photograph · Licence CC BY-SA 4.0. Layout and logo added; adapted under the same licence.
