December’s Valencia Marathon will stage a world-class women’s showdown: Olympic champion and reigning world champion Peres Jepchirchir against course-record holder Amane Beriso. On the men’s side, former winner Sisay Lemma headlines. As one of the sport’s fastest courses—and now a December anchor—Valencia’s field announcement is the clearest early signal of how the post-Chicago road season will close.
The matchups hint at divergent incentives. Jepchirchir has accumulated titles across majors and championships; Beriso owns the course history and knows how to extract speed from Valencia’s gentle profile. Lemma’s inclusion suggests the men’s race could skew aggressive from the opening 10K. Elite fields there typically organize around even pacing and deep second packs, a factor that often produces lifetime bests well down the results sheet.
For shoe brands and agents, the announcement starts the bonus chessboard: course records, national records, and world-ranking points in a race that routinely delivers top-10 all-time performances. After Berlin and Chicago produced headlines in September and October, Valencia’s December slot keeps the road-running attention arc intact through year’s end.
Sources: World Athletics (Label Races news).