Favourites and surprises: how the Cursa dels Nassos 2025 arrives in Barcelona

The Cursa dels Nassos 2025 has broken its registration record. More than 13,000 runners will take to the streets. Big international names will compete for victory. Find out who the favourites and possible surprises are. Follow the excitement live and do not miss any detail.

The Cursa dels Nassos 2025 is shaping up to be the year’s biggest athletics event in Barcelona, with more than 13,000 participants and an elite international line-up. The race, which can be followed live on betevé from 16:00, promises high drama in both the men’s and women’s categories.

Among the leading contenders for the men’s title is Thierry Ndikumwenayo, a Burundian athlete naturalised as Spanish, who arrives after winning gold at the European Cross Country Championships. Ndikumwenayo will seek to break his own Spanish 5 km record, set at 13:08 in Herzogenaurach, and has not ruled out an attempt on the European record, currently 12:47:67, achieved in Oslo this year.

The competition will be fierce, with Norwegians Narve Gilje Nordas and Magnus Tuv Myhre as the main rivals. Nordas, a two-time Olympian in 2020 and 2024 and world bronze medallist in the 1,500 metres in Budapest 2023, recorded a time of 13:04:85 in Boston this year. Myhre, Norwegian 5,000-metre champion in 2022 and 2023 and winner of the national cross-country championship in 2022, arrives with a mark of 13:06:98 in Oordegem.

Canadian Kieran Lumb is also among the favourites and could cause a surprise. Among the Spaniards, Abdessamad Oukhelfen and Xavier Badia are shaping up as the leading candidates to fight for the top places alongside Ndikumwenayo.

In the women’s category, Ethiopian athlete Likina Amebaw, based in Ávila, heads the list of favourites. Her track and road records support that status, including the 14:30:54 achieved in the 5,000 metres in Xiamen this year. She has also won the Zornotza and Soria cross-country races in 2025.

Scot Jemma Reekie and Frenchwoman Agathe Guillemot complete the trio of favourites. Reekie won silver in the 800 metres at the 2024 World Indoor Championships in Scotland and took part in the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games, as well as competing at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo. Guillemot competed at the 2024 European Championships in Rome and the 2025 European Championships in Apeldoorn, as well as at the 2024 European Cross Country Championships in Antalya and the 2025 event in Lagoa.

Spanish athlete of Moroccan origin Douae Ouboukir, recent winner of the Cursa de la Mercè 2025, also hopes to cause an upset in an edition that promises to be unforgettable.