It was in Tilburg a year ago that Sifan Hissan showed her talent when she won the International Warandeloop Cross Country.
A few weeks later she was crowned under-23 champion at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Belgrade and this summer she was one of the sparkling stars of the European Athletics Championships in Zurich.
Now she is back to defend the first of those titles in Tilburg on Sunday in the European Athletics Cross Country Permit event which is one of the biggest races before the championships in Samokov on 14 December.
Hissan, 21, won the Warandeloop by an impressive 20 seconds in 2013 as she triumphed over the 6km course in 27:09 from Portugal’s Dulce Felix and she will be the favourite to win again.
If she is planning to be in Bulgaria in three weeks time, she has the chance now to show her form on the terrain and prove once more what a multi-talented athlete she is.
In Zurich, she was nothing short of sensational when she won the 1500m and then finished second in the 5000m.
A number of fellow Dutch athletes will be aiming to beat Hissan, though, including Maureen Koster, who was fifth last year in 28:11, and the trio of Ruth van der Meijden, Hilda Kibet and Jamie van Lieshout who all ran well at the Zevenheuvelenloop last Sunday.
Belgium’s Dame Tasama is chasing his third successive victory in Tilburg and in the Netherlands' Khalid Choukoud, he is facing a man who has finished runner-up on the last four occasions.
Twelve months ago Tasama won in 29:58 to win by 13 seconds but it will be a strong race as his Belgium teammate Pieter-Jan Hannes, the under-23 gold medallist at last year’s SPAR European Cross Country Championships, Ukraine’s Vitaliy Shafar, the 2011 Warandeloop champion, Germany’s Richard Ringer, and Jesper van der Wielen, of the Netherlands, lie in wait over the 10km course.