The competition in Italy will be the 87th edition of the Cinque Mulini, known as "Five Mills" in English.

Races traditionally tackle place over a 9.8 kilometres distance for men and a 5.5km route for women, with the course taking runners around each of the five mills.

Kite has already won once and finished second once on the IAAF Cross Country Permit circuit this season.

The 19-year-old has been billed as the pre-race favourite by organisers, but could face competition from Bahrain’s Winfred Mutile Yavi and Ethiopia’s Adanech Anbesa.

Home hopes are set to rest on Nadia Battocletti, with the Italian having won women’s under-20 gold at last month’s European Cross-Country Championships at Tilburg in The Netherlands.

The men’s race is set to feature another rising star, with Uganda’s Oscar Chelimo taking to the start line.

He claimed the gold medal in the men’s 3,000 metres at the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires last year. 

Chelimo will seek to challenge steeplechase specialists, Morocco's Soufiane El Bakkali and Kenya's Jairus Birech tomorrow.

El Bakkali ended as the runner-up at the race back in 2017, before earning a silver medal in the 3,000m steeplechase at the World Athletics Championships in London.

Birech won the Cinque Mulini in 2016, having finished third the previous year.

He will aim to celebrate victory for the second time at the race.

The competition continues the build-up to the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, due to take place in Aarhus on March 30.