Jenny Spink, of Bristol and West AC, who lives in Spain, wrung the last few drops of race action out of the old year with a brilliant double in the 22nd Cursa dels Nassos in Barcelona on New Year's Eve. 

The GB international took the opportunity presented by the race timetable to line up in the elite 5K before a swift turn around and a second outing in the elite 10K – finishing in the top 10 amongst world-class opposition in both races!

There was speculation regarding possible world records in both races with Genzebe Dibaba (Ethiopia, 5K) and Helen Obiri (Kenya, 10K) the star turns.

First off was the elite 5K with a field of 50 lined up in separate pens. The winner was Jimmy Gressier (France, 13:39) from Santiago Catrofe (Uruguay, 13:40) and Yann Schurb (France, 13:45).     

Genzebe Dibaba – the world 1500m record holder – ran exactly 15:00 to win the women's race comfortably from her sister Anna Dibaba (16:02) and Esther Puigdevall (Spain, 16:03). Dibaba's time was 16 seconds outside the world 5K road record.

Next up was the 10K with just 47 competitors and a fast 27:42 victory for Morhad Amdouni (France) from Carlos Mayo (Spain, 28:06) and the 5K winner Jimmy Gressier (France, 28:13).

Hellen Obiri's tilt at the women's world record (29:42) fell short when her pacemaker withdrew too soon and then she suffered a fall on a tight bend, badly grazing an elbow. Obiri recovered to win in 30:53 from Spain's Majida Maayouf (33:19) and Marta Guasch (33:52).

Meanwhile, Jenny Spink was busy going equal fourth on the 2020 W35 masters 5K rankings with 16:59 for 10th place before having roughly her race time to recover and line up for the 10K (9th, 35:32) for third on the UK W35 list for the year.  

Remarkably, a 'Popular 10K' race was also held with more than 900 finishers (nearly 300 inside 40 minutes) won by Ruben Garcia (30:00) and Meritxell Delgado (34:11). The race was run in three waves of around 300 socially-distanced athletes, with 40 minutes between each start and a fireworks finale.

Full results at Cursa dels Nassos website here

Image: Jenny Spink by Cursa dels Nassos