Team gets ready for the 2023 Valencia Marathon

Sunday’s Valencia Marathon Trinidad Alfonso is one of the last dances in the marathon calendar for 2023. A fast course and forecast good conditions await the six NN Running Team athletes that will race in Spanish city.

NN Running Team in Action

Joshua Cheptegei is one of six NN Running Team athletes taking to the streets of Valencia on Sunday. He will be making his much-anticipated marathon debut, having successfully defended his World Championships 10,000m title in Budapest in August. You can hear more from Joshua about his race here.

After making waves on the track, Almaz Ayana has made a successful transition to the roads and will be looking to continue that trajectory in Valencia. The 2016 Olympic Champion for 10,000m and former World Record holder for the distance, Ayana made her marathon debut at the TCS Amsterdam Marathon last year.

It was an impressive debut, winning in the Dutch capital in 2:17:20. Almaz followed this with a seventh-place finish at the TCS London Marathon in April. In preparing for Sunday, she won the Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon in October.

She will be joined by another NN Running Team member who made their marathon debut in the same race; Genzebe Dibaba. Another athlete with a fine track record, Genzebe finished second behind Almaz in Amsterdam, in a time of 2:18:05. It will be her first visit to Valencia in three years, after winning the Valencia Half Marathon in 2020 (1:05:18, which stands as her PB).

Leul Gebrselase makes a welcome return to Valencia; it is a race he knows well, having won in 2018. His time of 2:04:31 is the joint second fastest time of his career. He last competed in Valencia in 2020, finishing ninth in the elite-only race that took in a modified course due to COVID.

Since, Leul finished second in both the TCS London Marathon and NN Marathon Rotterdam last year, and fourth in London this April. His consistency is impressive, having run 2:04 or 2:05 six times since his marathon debut in 2018. This will be Leul’s first race since he finished third and won bronze in the World Championships in Budapest this summer. He has a PB of 2:04:02.

The pair will be joined by Derseh Kindie, Huseyidin Mohamed and Abel Sikowo. Huseyidin will be looking to bounce back after not finishing in Chicago in October. The 23-year-old has run 2:05 twice; in his debut at the TCS Amsterdam Marathon last year and at the Tokyo Marathon in March, where he finished second.

Valencia is Deresh’s first race since January, and he heads to Spain with a PB of 2:08:23, run in Barcelona last year. He has raced well in Spain, having won the San Sebastian Marathon in 2021.

While Abel Sikowo makes his debut.

In addition, Jake Smith will be on pace-maker duties.