Kenya’s Edwin Kurgat was victorious at the Fitnessbank Cross Champs in Austin, USA, in the ongoing World Athletics Cross country Tour.
The Fitnessbank Cross Champs is the only Gold stop that will happen in the USA.
Kurgat won the men’s 8km race two seconds ahead of Yared Nuguse from the USA. Coming in at third was Commonwealth 1500m champion Oliver Hoare.
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Kurgat is also the 2019 NCAA cross-country champion.
“I have four years’ experience of running cross country in college and I know that no matter what distance someone has in the early stages, it’s still cross country; it’s still hard and it never goes away. This was a fun course for me and I’m really happy to have won,” Kurgat stated.
His fellow compatriot Wesley Kiptoo came in at sixth with a time of 23:45.
In the women’s race, Alicia Monson won with a time of 26:56, six seconds ahead of runner-up Emily Infeld.
“I didn’t really know what to expect here because we’ve just been doing a lot of base building in training, so I just went out and worked hard and closed when I needed to,” Alicia Monson stated after her win.
Monson came into the race having set Personal Bests in various races; 3,000m (8:26:81) and 5,000m (14:31:11).
Ednah Kurgat of the USA finished third with a time of 27:10.
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