That would indeed be an interesting matchup, especially toward which one took the pacing duty. I assume it would be Valby.
Keith got caught late and lost the British U20/23 5000 championship last summer. She reversed the order in the European U23 final by running her teammate into the ground. Literally. Eloise Walker fell during the final meters and missed a medal.
Beginning with that race it's been an improved and more relentless version of Keith. The commentator during European Cross Country last weekend mentioned that Keith was clicking along each kilometer at significantly faster pace than Grovdal in the senior race. But that race was 9 kilometer to 7 at U23.
Maatoug was spent and faded in that U23 race. Nothing left. I thought it might turn out that way, after racing NCAA, then Boston, then quickly to Europe. She managed that last year and got 4th at Europeans. But this time they changed the distances and it was a considerably longer race. That's not her forte, so soon after being an 800 specialist. The tip off was that Maatoug finished well ahead of Greta Karinauskaitė at NCAAs but this time Greta rallied to comfortably reverse the order. In fact, Maatoug wasn't the leading Dutch. She got passed late and finished several spots behind a teammate.