TALLINN, ESTONIA — This past Saturday, representing his country of Spain, University of Maryland Eastern Shore rising junior Khalil Rmidi Kinini set a personal best running in the U23 European Championship this weekend. The event brought together athletes from many European nations, and was held in the Estonian capital city of Tallinn.

Rmidi Kinini raced in the 5000 meter run against some of the best young runners on the European continent, and managed a ninth place finish in a field of 16 competitors. Yet what was more important was the time of 14:05.28, good for nearly two seconds faster than his school record setting time of 14:07.08, set at the Virginia Challenge this past April.

“This is a big deal to see one of our own shine on a big stage. It is good to see Khalil represent himself and his country well.” Hawks head coach Ernest Barrett said.

In his first two years at UMES, Rmidi Kinini has been one of the leaders of the men’s track & field program. He currently holds four school records in indoor track and a pair in outdoor track, and some of those records were broken when he was a freshman. That success also carried over to the cross country campaign where Rmidi Kinini won every race his sophomore year as the team won the 2014 MEAC Championship.

All that effort earned the Hawks’ runner a slew of awards from various sources. Rmidi Kinini was named a team MVP, a conference Outstanding Performer and a winner of several national weekly awards.

Rmidi Kinini will return to campus this August to prepare to defend the schools cross country title.