Thierry Ndikumwenayo (Kyriama, Burundi; 28 years old) says on his return journey from Lagoa, in the south of Portugal, where the fantastic beaches of the Algarve are, to Castellón, where he lives, that his last name means “I am with God”. And this is what the athlete who was proclaimed European individual and team cross-country champion on Sunday feels, even if he explains that the last quarter was difficult: the frustration of the World Cup in Tokyo; the birth of his daughter, his first, and the obligation to leave her and his wife behind in two weeks, because he has not yet obtained the papers to bring his family to Spain; anemia during training camp in the Sierra Nevada and a flu that almost ruined his first European title.
“It was bad,” remembers the new champion. “The day before our trip to Seville, I felt very bad. I couldn’t even sleep. I had the flu, a headache and a sore throat. I was about to tell the federation that I was resigning, that I couldn’t travel. But since it was the flu, I thought I had three days to get better and thus help the team try to win a national team medal. But every day the situation got worse. When I I went out to shoot, I had a lot of trouble breathing. I didn’t know what to do, but I decided to wait until Sunday,” he said. Ndikumwenayo, who knows he is the best cross-country runner in Spain and that, even far from his best version, he could be vital for the team to get on the podium.
By race day, Sunday, he felt better, but still had trouble breathing. The Lagoa circuit also started with a steep slope and Ndikumwenayo struggled to get to the front of the group. “The circuit was hard and narrow, and it was difficult for me to position myself. I only managed it after the first kilometer.” Then he found his place and tried to make a difference. He picks up the pace and leaves with Jimmy Gressier, world champion in the 10,000m three months ago. “He was very strong and it was very difficult for me to follow him, that’s why I stayed behind him and tried nothing other than not to let go of him: he was in a lot of pain.”
In the last lap he thought he had nothing to lose and, seeing that it was a circuit with so many curves and so narrow, he decided to play with Gressier as if it were a Formula 1 race. “The last lap was incredible. He kept looking back and saw that he wouldn’t let go of me. I overtook him to see how he was really doing. Then he overtook me again. It was incredible. When there were 300 left. or 400 meters to go, I put myself in front to shoot and I suffered a lot until the finish line But he “I won. In fact, I’ve always beaten him, except in Tokyo.”
He left this World Track Championship very disappointed. It didn’t go as planned and he left for Burundi “very sad”. The grief lasted a week. Until the birth of their daughter, whom they called Kaysha (meaning “gift of God”) Camila (“like an angel) Imaé (“blessing”) Ndikumwenayo. But he has not forgotten Gressier’s sumptuous sprint triumph at the National Stadium of Japan. “I left really sad, but this defeat served as motivation for me.”
He couldn’t spend much time with his wife and newborn baby. The European Championship was beginning to appear on the horizon and he wanted his first championship title. Ndikumwenayo, who trains with Lluís Torlà, a former U-20 World Cup bronze medalist, has gone to concentrate in the Sierra Nevada. But preparation for the European Championship was complicated because an analysis went wrong and detected anemia and he was advised to leave the altitude and return to Castellón.
The gold medal brought happiness back to this athlete who received permission to compete as a Spaniard in 2023. Although he never lets out the whisper of feeling far from his family. Ndikumwenayo has been trying for months to overcome the bureaucracy that prevents him from taking his wife and daughter to Castellón. But there is no way. “The truth is that it’s something that worries me. I won’t be able to go at Christmas either because I have to prepare for the cross-country World Cup, and that makes me very sad. I won’t be able to travel to Burundi until March, and that’s very painful for me. Let’s see if we’re lucky and if we can have it sooner.”
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