ATHLETICS – BAHRAIN’S reigning Olympic champion and former world champion Winfred Yavi continued her strong start to the 2026 season with a dominant victory in the women’s event of the X Memorial Elisa Migliore cross country race in Italy on Sunday.
Yavi was in a class of her own amongst a high-quality field as she powered to first place after six kilometres of a challenging course featuring varying terrain.
The 26-year-old crossed the finish line in 20 minutes 37 seconds – more than a minute ahead of her closest challenger, Francine Nyomukunzi from Burundi, who completed the distance in 21:40. Emily Grace Collinge from Britain was third overall in 22:21.
Yavi topped the race’s final classification which featured more than a dozen elite professional athletes from around the world.
Her victory in Italy was her second triumph in as many premier cross country races held in Europe so far this year. She also won the LXXXII Elgoibar Cross Country Juan Muguerza Memorial in Elgoibar, Spain, last month, when she also finished more than a minute in front of the trailing pack.
Aside from her elite races worldwide this season, Yavi is also expected to spearhead the kingdom’s delegation that will be going for gold at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi and Nagoya in Japan this September and October.
Yavi, a 3,000 metres steeplechase and distance-running specialist, is a three-time champion in the quadrennial Asiad.
She won her Olympic title in Paris, France in 2024 and her world title in Budapest, Hungary, in 2023. She is also a Diamond Trophy winner – the prestigious accolade awarded to each season’s champions in the annual Diamond League, and is an Asian champion, Arab champion, and World Military Games champion, headlining her many career achievements.
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