Rodrigue Kwizera is set to defend his title against Thierry Ndikumwenayo, Charles Rotich and Oscar Chelimo when the top four from last year’s senior men’s race clash again at the Cross Internacional das Amendoeiras em Flor – the penultimate World Athletics Cross Country Tour Gold meeting of the season – in Albufeira, Portugal, on Sunday, 8 February 2026.
Three-time winner Likina Amebaw, who currently sits second in the World Cross Country Tour standings, leads the entries for the women’s race.
As has been the case many times in the past, the Cross Internacional das Amendoeiras em Flor again doubles as the European Champion Clubs Cup Cross Country.
Kwizera clinched his second victory in Albufeira last year, racing for his Spanish club Playas de Castellon. Making his season debut, the 26-year-old will renew his rivalry with Spain’s Ndikumwenayo, the European cross-country champion who is a two-time winner in Albufeira and who finished runner-up to Kwizera last year.
Kwizera heads into the race in second place on the overall tour standings. He finished first or second in four Cross Country Tour Gold races – in Seville, Soria, Atapuerca and Alcobendas – in November and the event in Albufeira is his first since then.
Ndikumwenayo, meanwhile, followed his European cross-country title win in Lagoa in December with an eighth-place finish at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee last month. He then placed fourth at the Cross Country Tour Gold meeting in Elgoibar.
The clubmates star in a rematch with Kenya’s Rotich and Uganda’s 2022 world 5000m bronze medallist Chelimo, who completed the top four in Albufeira last year.
Also joining them on the start line is Kwizera’s compatriot Egide Ntakarutimana, who won at the Campaccio last month.
Ethiopia’s Amebaw will target her fourth win in Albufeira when she lines up for the senior women’s event, also racing for Playas de Castellon.
She returns to cross-country action after running a 10km PB of 29:29 – a time that places her sixth on the world all-time list – in Valencia last month. Before that, she won the 5km at the Cursa dels Nassos in Barcelona and at Cross Country Tour Gold events in Soria and Amorebieta-Etxano.
She didn’t race in Albufeira last year but Türkiye’s Bahar Yildirim did, finishing second. Yildirim returns, seeking another strong run, and she again faces Portugal’s Mariana Machado and Spain’s Carolina Robles, who respectively finished third and fifth behind Yildirim last year.
They will be joined by Burundi’s Elvanie Nimbona, who was third at the Campaccio, plus Spain’s Idaira Prieto and Kenya’s Jackline Rotich, who finished fifth in Hannut.
Among those entered for the mixed relay are home stars Isaac Nader, the world 1500m champion, and Salomé Afonso, the double European indoor medallist.
SOURCE: WORLD ATHLETICS
