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SPAR European Cross Country Championships

Following the successful and graceful cooperation of all parties including the respective Local Organising Committees, the SPAR European Cross Country Championships will now be held in Fingal-Dublin in 2021 and in Torino-La Mandria Park in 2022.
Fingal-Dublin was due to host next month’s event on 13 December but the event was cancelled in 2020 owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
Having previously staged the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in 2009, the event will now take place in the Irish capital for the second time in 2021 at the Sport Ireland Campus on the outskirts of Dublin on 12 December.
Initially awarded the 2021 SPAR European Cross Country Championships, Torino-La Mandria Park will now host the 2022 edition.
European Athletics Interim President Dobromir Karamarinov said: 'Unfortunately, Dublin was unable to host this year’s SPAR European Cross Country Championships this year but we would like to thank Torino-La Mandria for their cooperation to allow Dublin to stage next year’s event. 
“Ireland and Italy both have a rich tradition in staging not only continental but also global cross country events so we are naturally delighted to reallocate the next two editions of the championships to two proud and passionate cross country running nations.” 
Liam Hennessy, Chairman of the Fingal-Dublin 2021 Local Organising Committee, said: “We are delighted to be hosting the SPAR European Cross Country Championships for 2021 and we would like to thank European Athletics and FIDAL for their support in facilitating the event returning to Ireland next year.
“Covid-19 had resulted in the championships which were set to take place in Fingal, Dublin next month being cancelled, but we can now look forward to working with Fingal County Council, Sport Ireland and RTÃ&#137; to ensure the 2021 SPAR European Cross Country Championships scheduled for 12 December is a memorable occasion for both athletes and spectators.” 
Maurizio Damilano, who is part of the Promotion Committee for the Torino-La Mandria 2022 SPAR European Cross Country Championships, said: “Together with the Piemonte Region and FIDAL, we have immediately accepted in the spirit of collaboration the request of European Athletics and the Dublin LOC to postpone our SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Torino-La Mandria Park to 2022 
“In this difficult time throughout Europe, it seems important to us - with the sporting spirit that has always characterised Italian Athletics - to show our availability towards European Athletics and our friends in Dublin. We fully understand the efforts of those who continue working with great dedication for the support and growth of European Athletics.”
Italy will become the first country to have staged the SPAR European Cross Country Championships on four occasions after previous editions in Ferrara in 1998, San Giorgio su Legnano in 2006 and Chia in 2016.
The 2022 SPAR European Cross Country Championships will be held at the La Mandria Park, the second largest enclosed park in Europe. All seven races are due to finish in the courtyard of the La Mandria Castle.
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Lisbon, Portugal staged the last edition of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in 2019

2019 European Cross Country Championships

 Following the successful and graceful cooperation of all parties including the respective Local Organising Committees, the SPAR European Cross Country

Dublin and Turin to stage SPAR European Cross Country Championships in 2021 and 2022

European Athletics today confirmed the cancellation of the 2020 edition of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships that was due to take place in Dublin, Ireland on Sunday 13 December.
As a part of yesterday’s Executive Board meeting held in Lausanne, Switzerland, European Athletics spoke with the Fingal-Dublin 2020 Local Organising Committee concerning the current COVID-19 situation in Ireland and the impact that this may have on the 2020 European Cross Country Championships. 
It soon became clear that due to the overall uncertainty on hosting mass sporting events, the existing sanitary restrictions in Ireland, and the travel restrictions imposed across Europe due to the coronavirus pandemic, it would not be possible to host the event as scheduled.
“The decision to cancel the Fingal-Dublin 2020 SPAR European Cross Country Athletics Championships was a very tough choice for European Athletics. Following the cancellation of the Paris 2020 European Athletics Championship a few months ago, this was the last opportunity for a major European Athletics event this year and cancelling it was not an option we chose lightly,' said European Athletics Interim President Dobromir Karamarinov.
'I know that all the athletes and entire athletics community were looking forward to this event but I ask them to keep heart. I would like to pay tribute to both the local organising committee for their commitment and hard work to date, and to Athletics Ireland for their fantastic support while we deal with these difficult times for our sport,” concluded Karamarinov.
Chairman of the Fingal-Dublin 2020 Local Organising Committee Liam Hennessy said: “We are disappointed that Fingal-Dublin will not have the opportunity to host the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in 2020 but we feel this was the only decision to make based on the current situation regarding COVID-19.'

 European Athletics today confirmed the cancellation of the 2020 edition of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships that was due to take place in Dublin,

Fingal-Dublin 2020 SPAR European Cross Country Championships cancelled

In the context of European Athletics’ Green Inspiration initiative, the organisers of the Lisboa 2019 SPAR European Cross Country Championships implemented a range of activities to promote sustainability and good environmental practices.
Green Inspiration was created in 2013 to help Member Federations and Local Organising Committees of major events to implement environmental and sustainability initiatives and engage the public in predominantly locally-focused projects. 
The most symbolic activity was a tree planting programme in which trees representing all 40 participating nations were planted at the Bela Vista Park, the venue of the European Cross Country Championships.
On the morning before the championships, European Athletics Delegate Jean Gracia, LOC President Jorge Salcedo, Deputy Mayor of Lisbon Carlos Castro and Portuguese middle distance running great Rui Silva were on hand to plant 80 trees as part of the organiser’s efforts to reduce the ecological footprint and to leave the venue with better conditions for the public in the future. 
Food waste was also kept to a minimum as the organisers worked closely with a local food waste combat institution to ensure that food which wasn’t eaten at the venue was redistributed to soup kitchens and homeless shelters.
To get more people active, one of the key pillars of their legacy programme was the formation of the Lisbon Running Center which came into being in September, forming part of their solution to create better running conditions in Lisbon. The programme has also elicited a strong response locally and the club and caters for runners of all abilities.
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Trees symbolising each of the 40 participating nations at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships were planted at the Bela Vista Park

Lisbon 2019 Green Inspiration

 In the context of European Athletics’ Green Inspiration initiative, the organisers of the Lisboa 2019 SPAR European Cross Country Championships implemented a

Tree planting programme shows Lisbon's commitment to sustainability

Two days before the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, Efrem Gidey didn’t know if he would be able to compete.
The 19-year-old was fit, raring to go, but as he sat at his home in North Dublin, officials at Athletics Ireland were in a race against time to secure his travel visa. And so he waited – and waited – for the call that told him he could travel to Lisbon for the U20 men’s race.
Having fled Eritrea in 2016, Gidey spent six months at a refugee camp in Calais, France before arriving in Ireland in March 2017. While his status as an Irish citizen has since been secured, it will be several months before he receives his passport, making international travel a complicated procedure.
Athletics Ireland nonetheless entered him in the U20 race, and the necessary paperwork came through from the Portuguese embassy less than 48 hours before the race. Gidey got the call around midday last Friday, got on a flight at 4.00pm that day and arrived in Lisbon, a few hours after his Irish teammates.
On his international debut, his coach set him a simple goal: to finish inside the top-10. “I thought he could be top five but I said to him top 10,” said his coach Joe Cooper. “There’s no point putting pressure on young fellas.”
The gold medal in the U20 men’s race was always going to go to Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen who coasted to the lead on the first lap, coming home a whopping 38 seconds ahead to take his fourth straight title.
But the field headed out on their final lap in Lisbon, excitement grew among the Irish fans who had travelled to the Portuguese capital in their numbers as Gidey was locked into a battle for silver. He surged clear of Turkey’s Ayetullah Aslanhan as they headed up the hill for the final time, but Aslanhan found something extra to take second on the downhill run to the line.
To Gidey, his bronze medal felt as good as gold. “I’m so happy, I don’t believe it,” he said. “It’s just amazing.”
At one point in his post-race interview, the 19-year-old had to pause to step aside, the emotion of the moment, his achievement, suddenly hitting him like a tsunami.
His journey to a European podium had been a long one. Gidey is not keen to relive much of it, saying only of his time in Calais that “it was a hard life, very tough.”
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
It was a big day for Efrem Gidey who won individual bronze in the U20 men's race on his debut for Ireland at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships. <a href='https://t.co/ke6wT6xS6q'>pic.twitter.com/ke6wT6xS6q</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1203781664687763459?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>December 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
When he arrived in Ireland he did not speak English, but he quickly made friends after enrolling at Le Cheile Secondary School in Tyrrelstown in west Dublin, where he worked tirelessly on his language skills.
Two months after arriving, he was brought to Clonliffe Harriers, a club based at Morton Stadium in north Dublin. “He had very little English so I used to communicate in minutes, written on a piece of paper,” said Cooper.
At the beginning his coach kept it simple – 20 minutes, 30 minutes – but as Gidey’s English improved he introduced specific workouts.
In those early months there was little indication of the talent Cooper had on his hands, but in March 2018 he found out. Gidey had usually trailed his clubmate Sean O’Leary in workouts, but as they completed a session of 16x500m on the build-up to the Irish Schools Cross Country Championships, he was suddenly able to keep up.
Gidey coasted to that title by 14 seconds, and he added the Irish schools’ 5000m title on the track a few months later. In December last year he finished eighth in the U20 race at the Irish Cross Country Championships, but he returned stronger than ever in 2019.
Given his academic workload, Cooper has kept his training to a sensible workload, with Gidey logging 50-60 miles (80-96 kilometres) a week. “With learning English sometimes the time is a little bit gone,” said Gidey. “Sometimes I only do a little bit of training because that is time I use with my translator. It was sometimes difficult to combine school and training.”
Nonetheless he emerged fitter than ever this year, winning the Irish schools cross country title by 23 seconds and then the Irish schools 5000m title by 27 seconds. At the Irish Cross Country Championships last month he decided to help his club in the battle for team honours by running the senior race, finishing ninth in the 10km.
That took a toll, and Gidey struggled with illness the week after the race. But he felt back to himself in the final days before travelling to Lisbon and after getting the green light with his visa, he was prepared to give it everything for his adopted nation.
“Every time I’m looking for the Irish team, what places we finish,” he said. “My (goal) was for Ireland, my country, to win.”
His third-place finish, backed up by Darragh McElhinney in 12th and Thomas McStay in 24th, placed the Irish team fourth, beaten to the bronze only on countback due to Portugal’s third scorer finishing higher than Ireland’s. But that near-miss couldn’t take the shine off Gidey’s day.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
Pure emotion! Joe Cooper and Efrem Gidey. <a href='https://t.co/yEBCmzIXGv'>pic.twitter.com/yEBCmzIXGv</a>
— Morton Games (@MortonGames) <a href='https://twitter.com/MortonGames/status/1204140711861506049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>December 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
Back in Dublin, Cooper watched the live stream with a group from his club. Gidey’s coach had booked flights to Lisbon but after struggling with a medical issue on the build-up to the event he made the tough choice to watch from afar.
“The doctor said to me, ‘I’m not telling you not to go but I’m advising you not to go because you could pick up a bug in the airplane and you could end up in hospital for two weeks. Is it worth that?’
“Now, in hindsight, it probably would have been,” he said with a laugh.
The coach and athlete shared an emotional embrace when they met in the airport the following day. “I know I’m not his father, but we’re from the same tree,” said Cooper. “He’s a dream to coach.”
Since Sunday there has been a deluge of interest from American colleges hoping to take Gidey stateside on a scholarship, and the teenager will weigh up his options over the coming months. Having raced Ingebrigtsen and experienced his first European Championship, Gidey wants more of the same in the future.
“It was my first big race, very fast at the start and a little bit hard,” he says. “It was very crazy, but it is experience for me. The next time I’ll improve.”
For all the distance Gidey has travelled, his journey could be just getting started.
Cathal Dennehy for European Athletics

Efrem Gidey won a bronze medal in the individual men's U20 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon

Efrem Gidey

 Two days before the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, Efrem Gidey didn’t know if he would be able to compete. The 19-year-old was fit, raring to go,

Bronze in Lisbon could be just the beginning for Gidey

Full replays and highlights of the Lisboa 2019 SPAR European Cross Country Championships are available to watch on-demand courtesy of European Athletics’ International Partner Eurovision Sport.
All seven races - along with the individual and team medal ceremonies - can be watched in their entirety on Eurovision Sport’s All-Athletics platform which can be found <a href='https://athletics.eurovisionsports.tv/event/36/spar-european-cross-country-championships' target='_blank'>here</a>. 
The programme began with Jakob Ingebrigtsen winning his fourth successive title in the U20 men’s race and concluded with Turkey’s Yasemin Can following suit, winning her fourth senior women’s title.
Great Britain & NI topped the medal table again, winning five gold medals across the programme including the mixed relay.
The 2020 SPAR European Cross Country Championships will be held in Dublin, Ireland.
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 Full replays and highlights of the Lisboa 2019 SPAR European Cross Country Championships are available to watch on-demand courtesy of European Athletics’

Full replays of SPAR European Cross Country Championships available

The 26th edition of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships were held at the Bela Vista Park in Lisbon and the theme of the day was repeat champions.
The course was wholly different to twelve months prior but five of the six individual champions successfully defended their titles in the Portuguese capital, translating their form on a flat and muddy course in Tilburg to the twists and undulations in Lisbon.
In the first race of the day, Jakob Ingebrigtsen capped his U20 career by winning his fourth successive individual title by an unprecedented winning margin of 38 seconds. Ingebrigtsen, who won his first title in Chia four years ago, only led by four seconds as the bell chimed but the double European outdoor champion forged clear on the last lap and still didn’t appear to be working unduly hard.
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Ingebrigtsen has taken down countless European U20 records and has scared the sub-3:30 and sub-13:00 barriers for 1500m and 5000m this summer but don't expect the 19-year-old to take too much time off from training over the Christmas period.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
“I can’t remember the last day we had free from training.” 
Maybe a day off tomorrow, <a href='https://twitter.com/JakobIng?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>@jakobing</a>? <a href='https://t.co/XZgZQ32QDW'>pic.twitter.com/XZgZQ32QDW</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1203714098736836615?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>December 8, 2019</a> </blockquote>
Italy’s Nadia Battocletti faced a field including four European U20 champions in the women’s U20 race but Battocletti ran clear of a field which included European U20 5000m champion Klara Lukan from Slovenia and home favourite Mariana Machado on the course of the last lap to graduate into the senior ranks with another U20 gold medal for posterity.
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In the men’s U23 race, France’s Jimmy Gressier completed hat-tricks in both the individual and team races to bring his tally up to eight gold medals from the SPAR European Cross Country Championships. The hard underfoot conditions at the Bela Vista Park meant repeating last year’s knee slide through the finishing tape would have been sheer folly but the Frenchman had a different celebration up his sleeve for Lisbon.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
Never a dull moment with <a href='https://twitter.com/jimmy_gressier?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>@jimmy_gressier</a>! 
The Frenchman wins his third successive U23 titles in both the individual and team race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon. <a href='https://t.co/6AMbM0V6Qx'>pic.twitter.com/6AMbM0V6Qx</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1203637329367306241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>December 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
Gressier burst onto the scene individually in Samorin two years ago and the Frenchman is the first athlete in championship history to win three successive titles in the U23 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships. 
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
Regardless of the course or conditions, there is no stopping <a href='https://twitter.com/jimmy_gressier?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>@jimmy_gressier</a> at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships. 
(<a href='https://twitter.com/FFAthletisme?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>@FFathletisme</a>) <a href='https://t.co/BQtVWdOG28'>pic.twitter.com/BQtVWdOG28</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1203726007146024961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>December 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
Denmark’s Anna Emilie Moller made it four wins for four reigning champions in the women’s U23 race. The Dane was content to bide her time in the early stages but the highest European finisher at the World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus brought that form to Lisbon, pulling away mid-race and amassing a winning margin of 39 seconds.
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The only individual winner who did not successfully defend their title was Norway’s Filip Ingebrigtsen who still finished a creditable 12th as Robel Fsiha became just the second Swedish athlete to win a medal at the European Cross Country Championships.
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And the programme concluded with the senior women’s race in which Yasemin Can from Turkey returned from injury to win her fourth successive gold medal ahead of Norway’s Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
A fourth successive gold medal for Yasemin Can in the senior women's race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships! <a href='https://t.co/yqWkVE58CJ'>pic.twitter.com/yqWkVE58CJ</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1203674024729026560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>December 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
There was also another team medal for the hosts as veterans Dulce Felix and Carla Salome Rocha delivered rousing performances in front of their home fans, finishing inside the top-10 individually to lead Portugal to the team bronze.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
Hugs and smiles for the Portuguese team! 
Dulce Felix wins her ninth medal at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, leading Portugal to bronze in the senior women's race! <a href='https://t.co/qoc3XiMnBX'>pic.twitter.com/qoc3XiMnBX</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1203675845711351810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>December 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
Great Britain & NI finished on top of the medal table once again courtesy of five gold medals, including victory in the mixed relay with Jonny Davies anchoring the Brits to the title.
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This year's edition of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships were held at the Bela Vista Park in Lisbon

 The 26th edition of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships were held at the Bela Vista Park in Lisbon and the theme of the day was repeat champions. The

SPAR European Cross Country Championships video highlights

Great Britain & NI topped the medal table at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships for the seventh time this decade, winning five gold medals across the programme.
In fact, the Brits were only one of two nations to win multiple gold medals at the Bela Vista Park in Lisbon alongside France who won two gold medals in the men’s U23 race courtesy of the exploits of Jimmy Gressier successfully defending both his individual and team titles.
After missing out on the medals in the mixed relay in Tilburg last year, the Brits were back on top of the podium in near gun-to-tape fashion. Sarah McDonald, who was part of the gold medal-winning quartet when the event made its debut in Samorin two years ago, put the Brits in contention for the title on the first leg before Jonny Davies - the individual U23 champion in Hyeres four years ago - brought the quartet home in 17:55 ahead of last year’s bronze medalists Belarus in 18:01 and France in 18:05.
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Jessica Judd couldn’t quite hold onto the bronze medal in the mixed relay last year but she performed excellently in the senior women’s race, leading Great Britain to the team title ahead of Ireland and Portugal. Competing on what she described as the toughest course she has ever raced on, Judd finished sixth individually - two places ahead of Charlotte Arter - to add to her medal haul which already includes individual U20 and U23 medals from the European Cross Country Championships.
This completed the second part of a British team double in the senior races after Great Britain beat Belgium by only two points for the men’s team title. 
Andrew Butchart and Ben Connor were part of the gold medal-winning British team in 2016 and they joined forces again yesterday, finishing fifth and ninth individually to help the Brits regain the team title. This was only their third gold medal from the senior men’s team race after prior successes in 1999 and 2016.
Great Britain also swept the gold medals in the U20 team race. With their three counters finishing inside the top eleven, the Brits won gold in the first race of the day - the men’s U20 race - with 25 points ahead of Norway with 38 points but the women’s U20 race was a decidedly tighter affair.
The Brits had won this title on 15 prior occasions and they won their 16th in Lisbon by the narrowest of margins. Both Great Britain and Italy were tied on 29 points but the Brits packed better with three counters inside the top twelve which gave them the verdict.
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The British senior women's team regained their team title at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon

British senior women

 Great Britain & NI topped the medal table at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships for the seventh time this decade, winning five gold medals across

Great Britain tops medal table in Lisbon with five titles

Yasemin Can has been the dominant force at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships since 2016 but there were question marks over the Turk’s form and fitness heading into this year’s race.
Can hasn’t raced since mid-July due to injury but any doubts about her condition were dispelled on the first of the five long laps of 1500 metres. After a conservative start, Can found her position towards the front of the pack at the end of the small lap before striking clear on the first long lap.
The field had already completely splintered as they headed onto the second long lap. Can led by one second from four-time bronze medallist Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal from Norway but the rest of the pack - which included former two-time winner Fionnuala McCormack from Ireland - were already another 14 seconds in arrears with another six kilometres ahead of them around the Bela Vista Park.
Grovdal was the lone challenger to Can on the first long lap but she was already beginning to lose ground on the leader and Can was away and clear on the second large lap which she covered in 4:46. The Turk opened up a seven second gap on Grovdal who in turn was safe in the silver medal position some 26 seconds ahead of a triumvirate which was comprised of McCormack, Liv Westphal from France and Sweden’s Samrawit Mengsteab.
Can might have been absent from the racing scene due to injury but the reigning champion looked close to her peak form on the hills of the Bela Vista Park. Without showing too many signs of fatigue, Can duly embellished her gap over the course of the last three laps, coming home to win an unprecedented fourth successive title in the senior women’s race in 26:52 just a few days shy of her 23rd birthday.
“The course was hilly but I was ready for it because where I come from it is like that,” commented Can whose run of success dates back to Chia in Italy in 2016.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
A fourth successive gold medal for Yasemin Can in the senior women's race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships! <a href='https://t.co/yqWkVE58CJ'>pic.twitter.com/yqWkVE58CJ</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1203674024729026560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>December 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
The gaps behind Can were significant as Grovdal ran in isolation for most of the race to win the silver medal some fifteen seconds in arrears, extending her record medal haul for a female participant at the European Cross Country Championships. This was her seventh individual medal since winning U20 silver on her debut in 2006.
Another athlete making history was McCormack who was competing at the European Cross Country Championships for the 16th time since 2001 - a record on the women’s side. McCormack was in contention for a return to the podium after a seven year hiatus but the veteran Irishwoman - who has strength, tenacity and endurance in abundance and was fancied to perform well on this sort of course - just missed out on the individual bronze medal in a sprint finish against the largely unheralded Mengsteab, 27:43 to 27:45.
But there was consolation for McCormack who anchored the Irish team to the silver medal behind Great Britain - 26 to 41 points. This was their fourth medal of the championships which augurs well for next year when the event returns to Irish soil in Dublin after eleven years. 
“It's difficult because I've come fourth so many times before, and it's very painful to be honest,” reflected McCormack. “But we got a team medal today, and that's good. We had a very successful team championships this year, I don't think we've ever won this many medals as a whole group before - and going into Dublin next year, that's promising.”
Led by Jessica Judd in sixth and Charlotte Arter in seventh, the Brits won the senior women’s team title for the seventh time while the championships concluded with a rousing team medal for the hosts.
Not since 2011 have the Portuguese team won a medal in the senior women’s race but the veteran of their team Ana Dulce Felix - who won four successive individual medals from 2010 and 2013 as well as the 10,000m title at the European Championships in 2012 - helmed her triumvirate to a brilliantly well-received bronze medal.
Felix, who now has nine medals from the European Cross Country Championships since 2008 at the age of 37, finished eighth individually. Carla Salome Rocha was only two places behind in tenth with their third counter - and their only other athlete in the senior race - Susana Francisco finishing 25th to win their third bronze medal of the day.
<div><blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
All the feels! Ã¢&#152;º 
Portugal won their first senior women's team medal since 2011 with Dulce Felix leading the hosts to bronze. <a href='https://t.co/gUlcGYwsF8'>pic.twitter.com/gUlcGYwsF8</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1203769895676260354?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>December 8, 2019</a></blockquote></div>

Turkey's Yasemin Can won her fourth successive senior women's title at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon

Yasemin Can

 Yasemin Can has been the dominant force at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships since 2016 but there were question marks over the Turk’s form and

Can wins an unprecedented fourth successive senior women’s title

In a race brimming with current and former champions as well as the three individual medallists from Tilburg, the individual gold medal in the senior men’s race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships went to the athlete who only finished 40th last year.
But that is not to say that Sweden’s Robel Fsiha was a completely unexpected champion. While Fsiha wasn’t a factor in last year’s race, the 23-year-old was the top European finisher at the World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark where he finished 17th at the start of the season.
Even so, Fsiha didn’t feature too extensively in the pre-event discussion which focused on the prospects of defending champion and late entrant Filip Ingebrigtsen from Norway’s, past winners Aras Kaya and Ali Kaya from Turkey and Switzerland’s Julien Wanders who was making his debut in the senior race at the European Cross Country Championships.
Fsiha was aware of the calibre of the field on the start-line at the Bela Vista Park but the Eritrean-born athlete was still confident enough in his abilities to believe he could outrun the favoured entrants over a technically challenging 10225 metre course.
“It was a really good field here and I was expecting it so I prepared myself by training really hard,” said Fsiha. “My focus was to take gold - that's why I've been training at altitude prior to coming here. I knew the other athletes would try to follow me, but I've been working hard on my hill workout, so I'm pleased with the result.”
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The course was certainly one of the hilliest and rhythm-sapping in the recent history of the European Cross Country Championships but this suited the eventual winner who performed very well in Aarhus on a course which many seasoned observers opined was the toughest in World Cross Country Championships history.
As expected, Wanders took the race out hard from the gun and led for the majority of the two short laps of 500 metres and the first of six long laps of 1500 metres. The pace from the outset put paid to the prospects of reigning champion Ingebrigtsen who glided across the mud in Tilburg twelve months ago but eventually finished 12th in Lisbon, some 58 seconds behind the winner.
And there was little respite at the front as Aras Kaya, the individual winner in 2016, assumed the pacemaking duties from Wanders. After a 4:23 and then a 4:29 lap, Kaya kept up the pressure with laps of 4:26 and then a 4:24 lap which succeeded in whittling the leading group down to three with only Fsiha and two-time U20 champion Yemaneberhan Crippa from Italy in Kaya’s slipstream.
Racing for the first time since the World Athletics Championships, Crippa began to drift out of contention on the penultimate lap as Kaya continued to forge ahead from Fsiha. The Swede kept glancing around - perhaps to check the distance between himself and the bronze medallist - but Fsiha clearly had aspirations on the gold medal, breaking away from the long-time leader on the first uphill climb on the final circuit.
Fsiha was just as adept on the downhill as he did on the uphill and the leader powered home from a rubber-legged Kaya on the approach to the finish, opening up a commanding gap of eleven seconds to secure what was only Sweden’s second gold medal in the history of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
Fsiha covered the 10225m course in a fraction inside 30 minutes - he stopped the clock at 29:59 - with Kaya further embellishing his medal tally with silver in 30:10 to accompany his gold medal from 2016 and his bronze medal from 2018. 
And making his eighth successive appearance at the European Cross Country Championships, Crippa also added to his medal tally. He followed up his two gold medals at U20 level and two bronze medals at U23 level with his first senior medal at the European Cross Country Championships. 
“This course is like a mountain!” exclaimed Crippa. “But I am used to it and I really like it when it is a hard loop.”
Wanders rallied on the last lap, passing Great Britain’s Andrew Butchart to finish fourth in 30:25. Two years after winning individual bronze, Butchart had to settle for fifth individually but he still led the Brits to their third team title in championship history after prior successes in 1999 and 2016.
Butchart was part of that gold medal-winning team in 2016 as was Ben Connor who finished ninth today in 30:47 with Kris Jones completing their triumvirate in 22nd. 
The Brits only won the team title by two points from Belgium who were led by Soufiane Bouchikhi and Isaac Kimeli in seventh and eighth individually with Spain winning team bronze despite their star runner Ouassim Oumaiz, 20, dropping out due to injury. Their leading counter was Antonio Abadia in eleventh in 30:57.

Robel Fsiha won only Sweden's second gold medal in the history of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships by winning the senior men's race

Robel Fsiha

 In a race brimming with current and former champions as well as the three individual medallists from Tilburg, the individual gold medal in the senior men’s

Fsiha defeats the favourites to win senior men’s gold for Sweden

Frenchman Jimmy Gressier became the third Tilburg champion to defend his crown again here today – and he once more celebrated in memorable fashion as he won the U23 title at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships for a third time in a row. 
In a race across 8225m over one short lap and five long laps, he also led France to team gold for the third year in succession. 
This ends the most incredible sporting year for Gressier as he now has four European gold medals after his sensational 5000m and 10,000m double at the European U23 Championships in Gavle in July.
Twelve months ago in Tilburg, he fell and slid across the line on his knees in the mud as he celebrated his success but this time he was far enough ahead to first send a kiss to the crowd, stretching his arms out and then walk the last few metres, jigging his body from side to side, before breaking the tape.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
Never a dull moment with <a href='https://twitter.com/jimmy_gressier?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>@jimmy_gressier</a>! 
The Frenchman wins his third successive U23 titles in both the individual and team race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon. <a href='https://t.co/6AMbM0V6Qx'>pic.twitter.com/6AMbM0V6Qx</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1203637329367306241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>December 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
He did so in a time of 24:17, eight seconds ahead of Serbia’s Elzan Bibic with Spain’s Abdessamad Oukhelfen third in 24:34. France also won the team gold with 17 points from Italy with 29 and Germany with 45.
“I felt great today,” said Gressier. “I knew I had to be patient, so I went for it at the right time without making it too hard for myself. I kept telling myself to be calm and to be in control.
“I knew my legs could do it and as I moved to the front, I kept this image in my head that I could win, so the strategy paid off. I finished again with my aeroplane move, it’s a great celebration and a great way to finish – especially after what happened last year in Tilburg.”
Gressier is 23 in May, so this is the last the championships will see of him at this level but he goes out with some record after breaking through by winning his first individual gold medal in Samorin in 2017. 
Wearing his trademark baseball cap, he led early on before Bibic took up the running from Gressier with Oukhelfen just behind, this trio breaking away from the rest. 
But reigning champion Gressier made a significant move on the steep downhill section on the penultimate lap which elicited an immediate impact, extending his lead stride by stride and never losing his footing on the quick up-and-down challenges near the end. 
The French team might not have packed as well as they did in 2017 and 2018 but with three finishers inside the top-10 - Fabien Palcau in fourth and Mohamed-Amine El Bouajaji in tenth - they were still assured of their third team title.
Moller storms to a successful title defence in the women's U23 race
The theme of repeating champions continued in the women’s U23 race as Denmark’s Anna Emilie Moller kept hold of her title. 
Like Gressier, Moller is also 23 next year and she bade farewell to this age-group event after a prolific display over 6225m, breaking away in the final two kilometres and looked so at ease, opening up an awesome winning margin. 
And like Gressier, Moller has amassed an incredible 2019. This win now goes alongside her double gold from the Gavle 2019 European Athletics U23 Championships in Gavle in July when she won the 5000m and 3000m steeplechase titles. 
Extending her lead all the time today, she won in 20:30, a big victory from the Netherlands’ Jasmijn Lau in second in 21:09 with Ireland’s Stephanie Cotter third in 21:15.
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Lau did end the day with gold as she led the Dutch to the team title with 17 points from Ireland with 29 – and two silvers for Cotter – with Great Britain and Northern Ireland taking bronze with 40.
Moller hardly lost her stride or her patten, head down and maintaining a superb pace throughout as she tore the rest of the field apart. Her winning margin was a significant one but Moller didn’t take anything for granted on an undulating and rutted course at the Bela Vista Park. 
“It feels amazing to win again, I love winning. It's all you want to do as an athlete so I'm pleased the race went the way I hope for - you never know how it will develop, and anything can happen,” said Moller. 
As Lau took second, her teammate Jasmijn Bakker was fourth in 21:21 with Diane Van Es in 11th in 21:53 as the third of the gold Dutch counters. 
Likewise, Cotter came away with two medals from this category as the individual bronze medallist led Ireland to the silver medal in the team race with twins Eilish and Roisin Flanagan ninth and seventeenth respectively. 
<div> </div>

France's Jimmy Gressier won his third U23 successive titles in the individual and team races at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships

Jimmy Gressier

 Frenchman Jimmy Gressier became the third Tilburg champion to defend his crown again here today – and he once more celebrated in memorable fashion as he won

Gressier and Møller graduate out of the U23 ranks on a golden note

Jakob Ingebrigtsen made it an awesome foursome as he was once more crowned men’s U20 gold medallist at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon this morning.
In the past few weeks there was no guarantee that the 19-year-old Norwegian superstar would even be here to defend his title but his decision to compete, having just returned from altitude training Flagstaff, Arizona was fully justified as he triumphed for the fourth time in a row.
With specks of rain in the air but far from a muddy course to contend with, Ingebrigtsen was supreme again over the 6.225km route as he won by an amazing 38 seconds - a record margin in the U20 race - and took silver in the team event too. 
Gold went the way of the Brits, led home by Charles Hicks who finished fifth, with delight for hosts Portugal who pipped Ireland for bronze. 
It is easy to forget that Ingebrigtsen was only 16 years old when he won this title on the first occasion in Chia in 2016 and his progression since then has been amazing. Ingebrigtsen said: “It was a fun race - it looked like it was going to be difficult but after the first lap, you already know who’s bringing it and who is not.
“I remember my first win, it is always the first win that I am most proud of. After a couple of years, you feel like you’ve been there and done it all but now I am looking forward to not being in the junior category anymore.” 
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A double senior European champion on the track outdoors, his versatility remains immense and from the moment the gun fired, it was just a case of when would he take control.
There was no rush for Ingebrigtsen as the runners met an incline within moments of the start and as they took the right hand turn on the small lap for the first time, Spain was making the early running, with Pol Oriach and Alejandro Quijada leading. 
No panic at this stage - or any for that matter - from Ingebrigtsen, as he stayed to the left of the pack in sixth but it was not long after that Ingebrigtsen put his foot on the gas and took over. 
He looked so comfortable even towards the latter stages of the race at the undulating Bela Vista Park, with Ireland’s Efrem Gidey, Turkey’s European U20 5000m silver medallist Ayetullah Aslanhan and Hicks now the contenders as a break emerged. 
The trio chasing Ingebrigtsen quickly became only two as Hicks slipped away. As the camera panned in on Ingebrigtsen when he took the bell four seconds ahead of Aslanhan who was now one second ahead of Gidey, the Norwegian was the only runner in the shot. 
He was that clear - that in command - occasionally looking over his shoulder but one suspected this was more of a guarantee that he was in no danger - and maybe to see where his teammates were in the context of a pursuit on the team title. The closest at that stage was Hakon Stavik in 12th. 
Ingebrigtsen was taking in the adulation as he came down the hill – where he almost lost his footing at one stage – to win in 18:20 with Aslanhan coming through for a second European silver this year after making a brilliant late sprint. 
He added to his silver medal from Boras by crossing the line in 18:58 with Gidey third on his debut for Ireland in 19:01.
Battocletti makes it back-to-back U20 titles
A year after winning gold in the women’s U20 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships by one second, Nadia Battocletti successfully defended her title with more room to breathe this time. 
And in the team event, there was a successful defence for Great Britain and Northern Ireland, led home by Izzy Fry in sixth.
Battocletti won by three seconds, producing an outstanding display, after taking an early lead, staying poised and then breaking away when she really needed to. 
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At the bell, Batocletti led from Portugal’s home favourite Mariana Machado, a stride ahead of European U20 champions Klara Lukan from Slovenia, Poland’s Zofia Dudek and Switzerland’s Delia Sclabas.
Sclabas was the first to drop off the pace as they took a key climb on the last lap as Machado moved in front, driven on by the noise of the Portuguese fans.
Whatever Machado did at the front, it worked as it became a group of three with Battocletti and Lukan just behind. A small gap then appeared, with Battocletti on the shoulder of Machado and as the course went downhill again, the Italian went in front before another small climb.
It would take something special from here to catch Battocletti and the Italian duly stretched away on the descent into the finish, winning in 13:58 ahead of Lukan who took silver in 14:01 from Machado third in 14:10. 
Battocletti said: “I don’t know exactly what it feels to be the reigning champion. It was probably better the first time but I am happy about this win. 
“I didn’t feel much pressure coming here, I was probably more nervous at the European U20 Championships in Boras this summer. I hope I will continue to win like this in the future.”
Great Britain and Italy ended with the same points in the team event - 29 - but the gold went to the Brits as their last counter - Amelia Samuels in 12th in 14:41 - was a place and one second ahead of the third Italian, Angela Mattevi.
Along with Fry, their triumphant trio was made up of Saskia Millard in 11th in 14:37 with Manon Trapp the first Frenchwoman, ninth in 14:37, as they took team bronze with 38.
<div> </div>

Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen cruised to his fourth U20 title at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, winning by a record winning margin

Jakob Ingebrigtsen

 Jakob Ingebrigtsen made it an awesome foursome as he was once more crowned men’s U20 gold medallist at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in

Ingebrigtsen and Battocletti repeat on the hills in Lisbon

Ahead of the 26th edition of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon, Portugal on Sunday (8), some of the leading international and domestic athletes shared their thoughts with the media ahead of the competition at the pre-event press conference which took place at the Lisbon City Hall. 
Julien Wanders (SUI) 
On competing at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships for the first time since 2015...
“I like to change my preparation - I don’t want to do the same thing every year and fall into a routine. After Doha, I thought what could I do to change it up a little bit and I just decided the cross country could be a good challenge. I enjoyed it when I was younger so it feels good to be back at cross country.”
On trying to win Switzerland’s first ever medal in the senior men’s race...
“I think the history of cross country running in Switzerland is five medals - only women - so it would be nice to bring a medal back. I’m definitely going for a medal. We will see tomorrow.”
On what he has learnt from living and training in Kenya...
“It’s very different. In Kenya, running is a job - it’s something they do for a living and over here, people run because they enjoy it. They don’t run for the same goal. 
'It’s crazy - in Iten where I train, I train with a group of 30-40 people and it pushes me every day and what I learnt the most in Kenya is: be confident and have no limits. Don’t limit yourself to what you think is possible and this is the spirit I will take tomorrow. I will go limitless. 
 [PHOTO src='1289958' size='mediumLandscape' align='right']
Anna Emilie Moller (DEN)
On whether being one of the biggest favourites across the championships adds any pressure...
“I don’t know if it brings extra pressure because I always put a lot of pressure on myself and that’s enough I would say!”
On the importance of doing a full cross country season...
“The winter season is very important for the summer season. It’s important to have this base training for getting a good track season. I enjoy cross country and it’s nice to have competitions in the winter when you have a lot of training and getting the variation as well.”
On her thoughts about the course...
“I enjoy tougher courses with variation. I think this will be a nice course but different to most European Cross Country Championships courses. It’s hilly, challenging and with twists and turns so I am looking forward to it.”
 [PHOTO src='1289957' size='mediumLandscape' align='right']
Ana Dulce Felix (POR)
On her memories of competing at the championships the last time they were held in Portugal in 2010...
“It reminds me of the time I won my first individual medal and the Portuguese team achieved the gold. I remember that moment and after six years of not being in the Portuguese team at this championships, I want to show great form tomorrow.”
On the record Portugal has amassed in the senior race [eight gold medals in the team race] and what this has meant for Portuguese athletics...
“I am very proud of our record - we have achieved great moments for Portuguese athletics, especially the gold medals at the European Championships. This generation of athletes is moving to the marathon now but for me - it’s still a great pleasure to be here with my two colleagues Carla Salome Rocha and Carla Francisco. We hope to do the best we can with the support of the Portuguese public.”
On her expectations for tomorrow’s race...
“I have four individual medals in my career from this championship and I hope to gain a fifth medal tomorrow. I know I am focusing on the marathon and I want to work very hard ahead of the Olympic Games in Tokyo but I want to prove something else in cross country. This is the turning point and because it is in Portugal, I have put a lot of preparation into this race.”
 [PHOTO src='1289959' size='mediumLandscape' align='right']
Andre Pereira (POR)
On competing on home soil at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships...
“A competition in our home country is always special, especially as my team [Benfica] has a stadium near here. I don’t go for medals but we will fight for our country and give a good example.”
On how familiar he is with the course at the Bela Vista Park...
“Our national championships two weeks ago was on the same course so we know it very well. It’s very tough but I especially like this type of course. It’s tough - there are many hills. The last few European Cross Country Championships have been quite flat so I think the winner might be different this year because of the course.'

Switzerland's Julien Wanders at the pre-event press conference for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon, Portugal

Julien Wanders

 Ahead of the 26th edition of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon, Portugal on Sunday (8), some of the leading international and domestic

SPAR European Cross Country Championships press conference highlights

Live streaming of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon, Portugal on Sunday (8) will be available courtesy of European Athletics’ International Partner Eurovision Sports on their <a href='https://athletics.eurovisionsports.tv/' target='_blank'>All-Athletics platform</a>.
The streaming is available to viewers globally without restrictions. The broadcast begins at 9:40am local time and will be accompanied by expert English commentary provided by Phil Minshull and 2011 world 1500m silver medallist Hannah England.
The first race of the day is the men’s U20 race at 10:00am local time in which Jakob Ingebrigtsen is targeting his fourth successive title and the programme concluded with the senior women’s race at 1:20pm.
As well as live streaming, there will also be coverage across European Athletics’ <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics' target='_blank'>Twitter</a>, <a href='https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanAthletics/'>Facebook</a>, <a href='https://www.instagram.com/europeanathletics/'>Instagram</a> and <a href='https://www.youtube.com/user/EuropeanAthletics'>YouTube</a> accounts.
More useful links:
<a href='https://directus.european-athletics.com/public/uploads/european-athletics/originals/62cec829-dca7-4d70-8201-e98b06eb5a64.pdf'>Final entries </a>
<a href='https://directus.european-athletics.com/public/uploads/european-athletics/originals/994de078-f634-48dd-8207-dc45e4a71e1e.pdf'>Statistics handbook</a> <a href='https://www.european-athletics.org/competitions/event=european-cross-country-championships/news/'>Previews</a>

More than 600 athletes have been entered for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on Sunday

Tilburg 2018 SPAR European Cross Country Championships

 Live streaming of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon, Portugal on Sunday (8) will be available courtesy of European Athletics’

How to follow the SPAR European Cross Country Championships

The senior men’s race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships on Sunday (8) always promised to be one of the spectacles of the day and even more so now reigning champion Filip Ingebrigtsen from Norway has fully committed to the championships.


The championships didn’t initially feature in either Jakob or Filip Ingebrigtsen’s racing schedules this winter and their names didn’t appear on the initial Norwegian team sheet for Lisbon. But both reigning champions were late additions to the final entries last week and they confirmed their participation at the championships on Wednesday afternoon.
At the time of the championships last year, Filip’s lifetime best in the 5000m was the slowest of the Ingebrigtsen brothers but the 2016 European 1500m champion made light work of the distance and the muddy and sometimes heavy underfoot conditions, gliding to victory over the 9880m course at the Beekse Bergen Safari Park ahead of a very accomplished field - most of whom will be in action on Sunday.
Like the Ingebrigtsens, Belgium’s Isaac Kimeli has also changed his racing plans this winter. Kimeli was going to contest the mixed relay in Lisbon but the fellow world 5000m finalist will be going the full distance off the back of domestic victories in Mol and Roeselare last month. Kimeli won silver behind Ingebrigtsen in Tilburg twelve months ago to complete the set of individual medals across the three age-groups.
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With only three counters to score, Belgium also has solid medal prospects of picking up a team medal for the first time since 2013. Kimeli will be joined on the start-line at the Bela Vista Park by Lahsene and Soufiane Bouchikhi, the latter representing Belgium in the 10,000m at the World Athletics Championships in Doha.
As well as the Bouchikhis and the Ingebrigtsens in action this weekend, Yemaneberhan and Nekagenet Crippa are very much to the fore of Italy’s team in the senior men’s race. Yemaneberhan, 23, will be making his eighth successive appearance at this championships in which he has already amassed four individual medals, including back-to-back U20 titles in 2014 and 2015.
Crippa finished some way adrift of the individual medals on his senior debut in Tilburg twelve months ago in sixth but the Italian should be capable of surpassing this showing. In his last race, Crippa finished a creditable eighth in the 10,000m at the World Athletics Championships in Doha in a national record of 27:10.76 to move to third on the European all-time list.
Fans have become accustomed to the sight of Turkish runners dominating the senior men’s race at recent editions of the European Cross Country Championships. After four individual wins between 2013 and 2017, Ingebrigtsen put a stop to this pattern in Tilburg, although Turkey did still prevail in the team race ahead of Great Britain and Italy.
Their team might be lacking some of their best runners such as European marathon record-holder Kaan Kigen Ozbilen but Ali Kaya and Aras Kaya - the individual winners in 2015 and 2016 respectively - will be in the medal discussion. Aras Kaya also won individual bronze in 2018 behind Ingebrigtsen and Kimeli.
An exciting and a welcome addition to the senior men’s race is Europe’s finest road racing exponent Julien Wanders from Switzerland who competes at this championships for the first time since he was a junior.
Wanders has since taken down the European records at 10km (27:25) and the half marathon (59:13) and he produced another significant win on the roads last weekend over 7.3km in Geneva on an undulating and lapped circuit which is redolent of the challenge awaiting the 102 athletes in the race at the Bela Vista Park.
If Wanders was to finish on the podium on Sunday, he would become the first Swiss athlete to win a medal in this race in championship history although his compatriots have something of a tradition in the women’s race with Anita Weyermann winning gold in 1999 and Fabienne Schlumpf winning silver last year.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
Can Ouassim Oumaiz win a senior medal at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships? 
At 20, Oumaiz is Spain's big hope in Lisbon next month. 
: <a href='https://t.co/ggAZqyyTgy'>https://t.co/ggAZqyyTgy</a> <a href='https://t.co/8D5nn6ba6v'>pic.twitter.com/8D5nn6ba6v</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1197252980690608130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>November 20, 2019</a></blockquote>
At 20, Spain’s Ouassim Oumaiz is the youngest athlete in the senior men’s race but this is not to discount his medal prospects. Oumaiz has skipped the U23 category after a string of good results on the domestic cross country circuit, including a victory in Atapuerca and a fourth-place finish in Soria.
But even if the individual medals are just beyond his grasp this time, Oumaiz will be a significant factor for Spain in the team race. He is accompanied by European 3000m steeplechase silver medallist Fernando Carro, 2016 European 10,000m bronze medallist Antonio Abadia and multiple U20 and U23 medallist Carlos Mayo.
Great Britain’s Andrew Butchart was part of the gold medal-winning team in 2016 before winning individual bronze the following year. The Olympic 5000m finalist will be donning the British vest again along with Ben Connor who won the British Trials in Liverpool last month.
Also watch out for Sweden in the context of the team race. Their squad features renowned cross country exponents such as Napoleon Solomon and Robel Fsiha - who was the top European finisher at the World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus - along with David Nilsson although the latter could be forgiven for not matching his tenth-place finish in 2015. 
Just one week ago, Nilsson broke the long-standing Swedish marathon record in the Valencia Marathon, clocking 2:10:09 to secure the Olympic qualifying time.
Men's senior medallists (9880m) in 2018
1. Filip Ingebrigtsen (NOR) 28:49 
2. Isaac Kimeli (BEL) 28:52 
3. Aras Kaya (TUR) 28:56 Team: 1. TUR, 2. GBR, 3. ITA

Filip Ingebrigtsen won the senior men's race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg last year

Filip Ingebrigtsen

 The senior men’s race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships on Sunday (8) always promised to be one of the spectacles of the day and even more so

Strong opposition awaits reigning champion Ingebrigtsen in Lisbon

Her victory last year only came with a one second winning margin attached to it but Turkey’s Yasemin Can prevailed at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships for the third season in a row. 
After missing the majority of the track campaign due to injury, Can is preparing to end her season on a high note by further etching her name into the history of the final major athletics event of the season. 
And Turkey will be strong contenders for another team title as well. Alongside Can, their team also features Meryem Akdag - who won individual silver behind Can in 2016 - and Esma Aydemir, the 2016 European 10,000m Cup winner.
No woman has won the senior women’s race on three occasions - let alone four - and at only 22 years old, the reigning champion could dominate this championships for the foreseeable future. Her run of success dates back to Chia in 2016 when she won the senior title on the day of her 20th birthday. 
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After all, Can will be competing against women in their late 30s who remain among the challengers and surely there would be no greater winner for the home crowd in Lisbon than Portugal’s Ana Dulce Felix?
Now 37, Felix is chasing her ninth medal at the European Cross Country Championships, having won the first of them in the team race in Brussels in 2008. Felix also competed at the European Cross Country Championships the last time they were held in Portugal, winning individual bronze and team gold in Albufeira in 2010. 
Felix has competed sparingly this season but she made an excellent comeback from maternity leave last December, finishing fifth in the Valencia Marathon in the second fastest time of her career with 2:25:24.
Can stands alongside Brits Paula Radcliffe and Hayley Yelling and Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack as the only women who have won the senior title on at least two occasions and the latter, who is now 35, will be chasing yet another podium finish at the championships. She is accompanied on the Irish senior team for the first time by her younger sister Una Britton who finished third at the Irish Championships.
McCormack is competing at these championships for the 16th time since making her debut in the U20 race in 2001 - a record for a female participant. McCormack famously followed in inaugural champion Catherina McKiernan’s footsteps by winning the individual crown in 2011 before successfully defending her title the following year. 
Twelve months ago, Can eked out her third title over Switzerland’s Fabienne Schlumpf while Norway’s Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal closed quickly, but not quickly enough, to win her fourth successive bronze medal in the senior women’s race, finishing only two seconds behind Can. 
Grovdal has yet another chance to reach the podium again in a year in which she showed her versatility by finishing fifth in the 3000m at the Glasgow 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships in March and then reaching the final in the 3000m steeplechase at the World Athletics Championships. 
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A home medal in the final race of the day would be some way to end the championships and Portugal’s senior women have history on their side.
The last time Portugal hosted the championships in 2010 was the last time they won both the individual and team titles with Jessica Augusto coming away with two gold medals. Their team of three - with Susana Francisco and Carla Salome Rocha joining Felix - will also be looking to land a ninth title in the senior women’s team race.
In a race brimming with experience, France’s Sophie Duarte is another former champion in the field, having lifted the crown in 2013, thus ending McCormack’s prospects of a hat-trick of titles. The French squad also includes Liv Westphal and Aurore Guerin who were both part of the team which finished fourth last year.
The Netherlands won team gold on home soil in Tilburg but they do not have any representation in this race this time which gives the Brits further hope of improving on their silver medal finish from last year. 
Charlotte Arter, who was the leading Brit in seventh in the individual race last year, is back in the team along with former two-time individual silver medallist Kate Avery who was 15th in Tilburg. They are joined by trials winner Jessica Judd, an individual medallist at this championships at U20 and U23 level and a fourth-placer in the mixed relay last year. 
Germany’s Elena Burkard produced another brilliant display last year to finish sixth in 26:53, a performance which led her nation to team bronze, and she will want to be in the mix once more.
Women's senior race (8000m) medallists 
1. Yasemin Can (TUR) 
2. Fabienne Schlumpf (SUI) 
3. Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal (NOR) Team: 1. NED, 2. GBR, 3. GER

Turkey's Yasemin Can will be making her return from injury at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on Sunday

 Her victory last year only came with a one second winning margin attached to it but Turkey’s Yasemin Can prevailed at the SPAR European Cross Country

On her comeback from injury, Can targets a fourth European cross country title

Accredited members of the media are kindly invited to attend the pre-event press conference for the Lisboa 2019 SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
When:
Saturday 7 December, 6:00pm local time
Where:
PaÃ§os do Concelho (Lisbon Town Hall) 
Rua do Arsenal, 1100-038 Who:
Ana Dulce Felix (POR) - 2012 European 10,000m champion 
Filip Ingebrigtsen (NOR) - 2018 SPAR European cross country senior champion (to be confirmed) 
Anna Emilie Møller (DEN) - 2018 SPAR European cross country U23 champion 
Andre Pereira (POR) - Four-time Portuguese 3000m steeplechase champion 
Julien Wanders (SUI) - European 10km and half marathon record-holder
Svein Arne Hansen (NOR) - European Athletics President 
Carlos Castro (POR) - Lisbon Sports Council delegate

For more information, please contact Antonio Fernandes at <a href='mailto:antoniofernandes@fpatletismo.pt'>antoniofernandes@fpatletismo.pt</a>.

 Accredited members of the media are kindly invited to attend the pre-event press conference for the Lisboa 2019 SPAR European Cross Country Championships.

Media advisory: Lisboa 2019 SPAR European Cross Country Championships pre-event press conference

Jimmy Gressier has amassed a faultless record in this intermediate age-group and the Frenchman will be looking to win his third successive title in both the individual U23 and team races at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on Sunday (8).
Not only has Gressier won four gold medals in this category at the European Cross Country Championships, the 22-year-old demonstrated this summer that his repertoire extends to the track, winning gold medals in both the 5000m and 10,000m at the Gavle 2019 European Athletics U23 Championships in July.
What makes Gressier such a redoubtable competitor is his versatility. The former footballer made his breakthrough in Samorin two years ago by winning in a sprint finish on a hard and flat course - outpacing pre-race favourite Yemaneberhan Crippa from Italy in the process - before raking through the mud in Tilburg in near gun-to-tape fashion last year to successfully defend his individual and team titles. 
Gressier employed a different tactical approach altogether on his 10,000m debut at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Gavle, surging away from the pursuers in a slow race in the last mile, covering the four laps in 4:17.1 despite slowing in the home straight to showboat for the crowd.
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Gressier has been the standout individual performer but the French team has also dominated the U23 category as a collective. France had four individual finishers placing inside the top seven in Samorin and four inside the top nine in Tilburg. The same quartet - Gressier, Hugo Hay, Fabien Palcau and Louis Gilavert - will join forces for one final hurrah in the U23 race in Lisbon.
Like Gressier, Hay will be aiming for his third successive medal after winning silver in 2017 and bronze in 2018. He also provided the second part of a French one-two in the 5000m behind Gressier at the European U23 Championships. 
Gressier’s prospects of a hat-trick of titles have been further heightened as Spain’s 20-year-old Ouassim Oumaiz - who defeated four top-10 finishers from the World Cross Country Championships in Atapuerca last month - has opted to contest the senior men’s race instead. This leaves European U23 1500m champion Ignacio Fontes and European U23 5000m bronze medallist Abdessamad Oukhelfen as Spain’s leading individual medal hopes.
Serbia’s Elzan Bibic is moving through the ranks and the former European U18 3000m champion - who won bronze in the U20 race behind Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Oumaiz in Tilburg last year - will be challenging for individual medals on his debut in the U23 race while Tadesse Getahon, who won silver behind Gressier in the 10,000m in Gavle, will be in contention to win Israel’s first ever European Cross Country Championships medal.
Great Britain's Alex Yee is focusing on triathlon these days but the 21-year-old might feel as though he has some unfinished business with the European Cross Country Championships. Yee was one of the prospective favourites for the U20 title in Chia in 2016 but his race was scuppered by a heavy mid-race fall which limited him to a ninth-place finish.
Yee will be making his first appearance at the European Cross Country Championships since that fated race three years ago after finishing third overall at the British Trials in Liverpool, one place behind Mahamed Mahamed who fared rather better in that race in Chia, winning individual bronze.
Moller poised to progress into the senior ranks with another U23 title
While Gressier’s staunchest rival last year was the finishing tape which he got tangled up in after skidding through the line on his knees, Denmark’s Anna Emilie Moller’s principal rival in Lisbon could be the clock with Germany’s Alina Reh and Konstanze Klosterhalfen both missing from the championships.
Moller won gold in the U23 race Tilburg last December in a sprint finish before winning gold medals on back-to-back days in the 3000m steeplechase (9:27.51) and 5000m (15:07.70) at the Gavle 2019 European Athletics U23 Championships.
Moller’s performance at the World Athletics Championships might not have received the plaudits which it deserved but the Dane was one of the breakthrough performers in a European context, improving her national record - and her European U23 record - to 9:18.92 in the heats and then to 9:13.46 in the final of the 3000m steeplechase in Doha.
Moller has raced twice since the track season and the 22-year-old produced notable wins at the Nordic Cross Country Championships in Heinola, Finland on 10 November before winning the Warandecross in Tilburg a fortnight later by an unassailable margin of 31 seconds.
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Four months before her 22nd birthday, Moller was also the top European finisher at the World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus in March, finishing 15th over a distance of 10km. Her form is such that Moller surely would have challenged for an individual medal had she opted to contest the senior race in Lisbon.
Behind Moller, four more top ten finishers from Tilburg will compete in the U23 race: Spain’s Celia Anton, Germany’s Miriam Dattke, Great Britain’s Poppy Tank and France’s Mathilde Senechal.
Out of this quartet, Dattke is arguably the best placed to challenge for a place on the podium alongside Moller. The German has improved significantly over the last twelve months, converting her sixth-place finish from Tilburg into a silver medal over 10,000m at the European U23 Championships.
One athlete who Dattke knows very well from recent age-group championships is Jasmijn Lau from the Netherlands. Lau just missed out on a place on the podium in the individual U20 race in Tilburg last December but she has made a comfortable transition into the U23 ranks, winning bronze behind Reh and Dattke over 10,000m in Gavle.
Anna Tropina might not have too much in the way of cross country form but the Russian, who is competing as an Authorised Neutral Athlete, could be a factor for individual medals based on the form she has displayed on the track this season. Tropina won the Russian 3000m steeplechase title this summer in 9:31.86.
Men's U23 race medallists (8000m) in 2018:
1. Jimmy Gressier (FRA) 23:37 
2. Samuel Fitwi (GER) 23:45 
3. Hugo Hay (FRA) 23:48 Team: 1. FRA, 2. GBR, 3. ESP
Women's U23 race medallists (6120m) in 2018:
1. Anna Emilie Moller (DEN) 20:34 
2. Anna Gehring (GER) 20:36 
3. Weronika Pyzik (POL) 20:46
Team: 1. GER, 2. ESP, 3. GBR

Jimmy Gressier has already won the 5000m and 10,000m titles at the Gavle 2019 European Athletics U23 Championships in 2019

 Jimmy Gressier has amassed a faultless record in this intermediate age-group and the Frenchman will be looking to win his third successive title in both the

Reigning champions Gressier and Møller poised for more U23 success

A year ago his achievements were unprecedented when he won the U20 crown for the third time at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships and Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen now has the chance to stretch his legacy even further in Lisbon on Sunday (8). 
Prior to Tilburg twelve months ago, no male athlete had won three titles in the U20 category. He did so with everything that makes him the runner he is: endurance, timing and speed when it really mattered.
His victory was emphatic, a nine second triumph over Spain’s Ouassim Oumaiz and further confirmation – if it was needed – of his position as one of Europe’s brightest middle distance prospects. His confidence was such that Ingebrigtsen wanted to join his brothers and also contest the senior men’s race later in the programme at the Beekse Bergen Safari Park. 
Ingebrigtsen confirmed on Wednesday that he will toe the start-line in the first race of the day at the Bela Vista Park which will mean double the concentration is needed for his rivals when the gun fires at 10.00am in Lisbon, the third time the European Cross Country Championships has been staged in Portugal. 
It might have seemed impossible for Ingebrigtsen to match the standards he set in 2018 but Ingebrigtsen has put together another magnificent 12 months, winning the 3000m title at the Glasgow 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships and finishing fourth and fifth at the World Athletics Championships in Doha. The 19-year-old has also lowered his European U20 records to 3:30.16 for 1500m, 3:51.30 for the mile and 13:02.03 for 5000m and also set a European 10km best of 27:54.
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Can anyone stop Ingebrigtsen from making it four in a row? Germany’s Elias Schreml produced the performance of his career to win the 3000m title at the Boras 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships and he is part of a full-size German team in the U20 race. 
One of the athletes with the strongest track credentials in the field is Belgium's Tim Van de Velde who has a chance to atone for his performance at the Boras 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships. The 19-year-old has an eye-catching lifetime best of 8:33.80 for the 3000m steeplechase but the teenager found himself bereft of this form in Boras, finishing a distant tenth in the final. 
The Portuguese team will be in contention for medals both individually and collectively. Their team features the reigning European U20 1500m champion Nuno Pereira and European U20 3000m steeplechase bronze medallist Etson Barros who will spearhead the host nation’s challenge for their first U20 team medal since Albufeira in 2010. 
Ingebrigtsen proved age means nothing in 2016 and four 16-years-old in this race may bear that in mind. Czech Republic’s David Slapak, Great Britain’s Will Barnicoat and Switzerland’s Jonathan Hofer were all born in 2003, as was Denmark’s Joel Ibler Lilleso, who celebrated that birthday just over two weeks ago.
Reigning champion Battocletti faces four European U20 champions
Like Ingebrigtsen, the defending women’s U20 champion Italy’s Nadia Battocletti is back and also in her final year as a junior.
And as Portugal stages the European Cross Country Championships for a third time, a thrilling rematch in this race over 4.225km could be in store in the Bela Vista Park. 
In Tilburg, just one second separated the gold and silver medallists, with Battocletti winning the title in a sprint finish just ahead of Delia Sclabas. The Swiss star will surely have the top spot on the podium on her mind in her final significant race as a junior as well. 
At the European Athletics U20 Championships, Battocletti won silver in the 5000m while Sclabas returned home from Boras with two medals to her name – gold in the 1500m and silver in the 800m. Sclabas, 19, has accrued seven medals from major world and European championships on the track and an individual gold medal in Lisbon would crown her dazzling junior career. 
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Three more European U20 champions from Boras will also compete in Lisbon: Poland’s Zofia Dudek in the 3000m, Slovenia’s Klara Lukan in the 5000m and Germany’s Paula Schneiders in the 3000m steeplechase. 
If the hosts are looking for success, Mariana Machado has a fine a chance of providing it in this second race of the day. Machado was also medallist in Boras, winning silver in the 3000m - missing out on gold by a small margin - before finishing fourth in the 1500m final on the same day. 
Machado will also be making her final appearance as a junior at these championships and she is certainly one of the in-form athletes in this age group, taking an excellent win over world marathon silver medallist Rose Chelimo over 8km in Soria last month. If Machado was to prevail on Sunday morning, she would become the third Portuguese winner of this title after Ines Monteiro in 1999 and Jessica Augusto in 2000. 
Great Britain & NI have won eight of the last nine team titles and their team is headed by British Trials winner Saskia Millard. 
A famous name will be in the Spanish team – Viciosa – Angela Viciosa, the 17-year-old daughter of one of the country’s greats, Isaac, the 1998 European 5000m gold medallist. 
Now his daughter has the chance to bring more honours to the family – having been born in the year in which her dad was part of the Spanish team which won team bronze at the 2002 World Cross Country Championships in Dublin, the city which is staging the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in 2020.
Men's U20 race medallists (6120m) in 2018:
1. Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR) 18:00 
2. Ouassim Oumaiz (ESP) 18:09 
3. Elzan Bibic (SRB) 18:11 Team: 1. NOR, 2. GBR, 3. GER
Women's U20 race medallists (4120m) in 2018:
1. Nadia Battocletti (ITA) 13:46 
2. Delia Sclabas (SUI) 13:47 
3. Inci Kalkan (TUR) 13:48 Team: 1. GBR, 2. NED, 3. TUR
 


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Only 20, Ouassim Oumaiz from Spain is targeting the senior men's race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on 8 December

Ouassim Oumaiz

 A year ago his achievements were unprecedented when he won the U20 crown for the third time at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships and Norway’s

Class of 2000 to headline U20 races in Lisbon 

Reigning champions Filip and Jakob Ingebrigtsen have confirmed they will defend their titles at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on Sunday (8).
Filip and Jakob won the senior and U20 races respectively in Tilburg last December with Jakob leading Norway to the team title in the U20 race. In doing so, Norway topped the medal table for the first time in European Cross Country Championships history with three gold medals.
Jakob will be targeting an unprecedented fourth successive individual title in the U20 race in his final year of eligibility in the junior category. His run of success stretches back to Chia in 2016 when he won his first U20 title less than three months after celebrating his 16th birthday.
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Filip will be looking to become just the third athlete in championship history to win back-to-back titles in the senior men’s race. His main rivals include the silver and bronze medallists from Tilburg - Isaac Kimeli from Belgium and Turkey’s Aras Kaya - and Switzerland’s European half marathon record-holder Julien Wanders.
But the most bemedalled athlete on the Norwegian team is Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal who has amassed a six individual medals since 2006, including bronze medals in the last four editions of the senior women’s race.
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Norway's Filip Ingebrigtsen was a majestic winner of the senior men's race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg

 Reigning champions Filip and Jakob Ingebrigtsen have confirmed they will defend their titles at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on

Ingebrigtsens to defend their European cross country titles in Lisbon

Spaniards Solange Pereira and Esther Guerrero will be hoping to maintain their 100 percent medal success in the third staging of the mixed relay at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on Sunday (8).
A year ago in Tilburg, Guerrero and Pereira ran the second and fourth legs respectively of the Spanish team which secured victory over France with Belarus coming through on the final leg to win the bronze medal. 
Twelve months before that when the race made its inception at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Samorin, Pereira and Guerrero ran the first and third legs respectively as Spain took bronze behind inaugural winners Great Britain & NI and the Czech Republic.
Once more the defending champions have a strong squad with mixed relay stalwarts Pereira and Guerrero will be joining forces with newcomers Sergio Jimenez and Pablo Sanchez. Jimenez is the better known of the two male runners having competed for Spain this year at the Glasgow 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships and Bydgoszcz 2019 European Athletics Team Championships.
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Twelve teams have entered the mixed relay and one of the strongest teams on paper is Sweden. European 800m silver medallist Andreas Kramer will step up in distance alongside fellow 800m specialist Lovisa Lindh while former European 5000m champion Meraf Bahta, who has two individual medals from the European Cross Country Championships to her name, brings excellent cross country credentials to the Swedish team.
Great Britain’s Sarah McDonald, who was part of their gold-medal winning foursome in Samorin, returns in a bid to win her second title. Jonny Davies will also be looking to embellish his medal haul as he assumes relay duty some four years after winning the individual U23 title in Hyeres, France. 
Returning athletes is very much a common theme this year with France’s 1500m specialist Alexis Miellet in the hunt for more medal success. In Tilburg, Miellet set the French team on their way as he ran the first leg of the silver medal-winning team. Miellet also won a gold medal in the U23 team race in Samorin in 2017. 
And there are some familiar names on the Belarusian squad. From their bronze medal-winning team from Tilburg last year, Siarhei Platonau and Volha Nemahai - who ran the third and fourth legs respectively to beat the Brits for a surprise bronze medal - will be eyeing a return to the podium.
Portugal’s Patricia Silva will have extra incentive for wanting to make her mark. Not only will she be looking to bring the host nation glory but a medal would be the perfect way to celebrate her 20th birthday which arrives the following day.
Silva - whose father Rui Silva won Olympic 1500m bronze in 2004 and bronze at the 2007 European Cross Country Championships - is the youngest athlete in this race and she will join Salome Afonso, Luis Monteiro and Paulo Rosario as the quartet wearing the colours of the home nation.
Mixed relay result (5560m) in 2018:
1. Spain 16:10 
2. France 16:12 
3. Belarus 16:21 
4. Great Britain & NI 16:24

Esther Guerrero was part of Spain's gold medal-winning team in the mixed relay at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg last year

Esther Guerrero

 Spaniards Solange Pereira and Esther Guerrero will be hoping to maintain their 100 percent medal success in the third staging of the mixed relay at the SPAR

Familiar faces to spearhead Spain's mixed relay title defence in Lisbon 

There are only five days to go until the SPAR European Cross Country Championships take place in Lisbon. The European Cross Country Championships date all the way back to 1994 and we have compiled some key facts and figures ahead of the 26th edition of the championships. 
-A total of 602 athletes representing 40 nations (including Russian athletes competing as Authorised Neutral Athletes) have entered this year’s SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon.
-The race with the largest number of entrants is the men’s U20 race with 115 entrants representing 29 countries.
-This will be the third time Portugal has staged the European Cross Country Championships after Oeiras in 1997 and Albufeira in 2010.
-Host country Portugal is the fifth most successful nation in European Cross Country Championships history in terms of gold medals won behind Great Britain & NI, France and Spain. Since 1994, Portugal has won 19 gold medals and 56 medals in total. 
-Great Britain & NI is the most successful nation in European Cross Country Championships history with 60 gold medals and 152 in total. The Brits have topped the medal table at eight of the last ten editions of the championships.
-The largest winning margin in the senior men’s race is 35 seconds when Jon Brown (GBR) beat Paulo Guerra (POR) in 1996. The biggest winning margin in the senior women’s race is 15 seconds when Annemari Sandell (FIN) beat Sara Wedlund (SWE) in 1995, although this margin was matched by Yasemin Can (TUR) in 2017 ahead of Meraf Bahta (SWE). 
-There have been three clean sweeps in European Cross Country Championships history. Russia swept the men’s U20 title in 2003 and the men’s U23 title in 2014 and Great Britain & NI swept the first six individual places in the U20 race in 2008.
-The oldest winners of the senior races are Sergiy Lebid (UKR) at 35y and 160d in 2010 and Helena Javornik (SLO) at 36y and 257d in 2002. The youngest senior winners are Annemari Sandell (FIN) at 18y and 334d and Ali Kaya (TUR) at 21y and 237d. 
-The youngest participant on race day will be Greta Varga (HUN) at 15y and 354d. The oldest participant will be Maurice Turnock (GIB) at 45y and 218d. 
-Fionnuala McCormack (IRL) is making her 16th appearance at the European Cross Country Championships, a record for a female athlete. The only athletes with more appearances to their names are Sergiy Lebid (UKR) with 19 and Gabriele de Nard (ITA) with 17.
-Four former winners of the U20 races will be competing in the senior races: Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal (NOR) in 2009 in the women’s race and Abdelaziz Merzougui (ESP) in 2010, Ali Kaya (TUR) in 2013 and Yemaneberhan Crippa (ITA) in 2014 and 2015 in the men’s race.
-Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal (NOR) will be looking to extend her record individual medal tally for women at the European Cross Country Championships. Grovdal has won a record six individual medals, including bronze medals at the last four editions of the women’s senior race.
-The most successful athlete in terms of individual medals won is Sergiy Lebid (UKR) who won 12 medals in the senior men’s race from 1997 to 2010, including nine gold medals. 
-Both Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR) and Yasemin Can (TUR) are in contention to win their fourth successive titles in the men’s U20 race and women’s senior race respectively. Only eventual nine-winner Sergiy Lebid (UKR) has achieved four successive wins in the same event, winning the senior men’s race on five consecutive occasions from 2001 to 2005.
-Sergiy Lebid (UKR) is one of three athletes to win the senior men's title on more than one occasion, winning the title in 1998, 2001-05, 2007-08 and 2010. Paulo Guerra (POR) in 1994-95 and 1999-00 and Alemayehu Bezabeh (ESP) in 2009 and 2013 are also repeat champions. 
-Paula Radcliffe (GBR) in 1998 and 2003 became the first repeat winner of the senior women's race. Other repeat winners are Hayley Yelling (GBR) in 2004 and 2009, Fionnuala McCormack (IRL) in 2011 and 2012 and Yasemin Can TUR) in 2016-18.
-Andrea Lalli (ITA) is the only athlete to have won individual U20 (2006), U23 (2008) and senior (2012) titles at the European Cross Country Championships.

 There are only five days to go until the SPAR European Cross Country Championships take place in Lisbon. The European Cross Country Championships date all the

SPAR European Cross Country Championships: facts and figures

Hosts Portugal have declared a team of 37 athletes for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on 8 December.
Portugal is the fourth most successful nation in championship history behind Great Britain, France and Spain. They have won 20 gold medals - and 55 in total - since the first edition of the championships in Alnwick in 1994.
Three of those gold medals were achieved on home soil. The senior men won the team title in Oeiras in 1997 while Jessica Augusto won individual gold thirteen years later in Albufeira, leading Portugal to the team title as well.
One of their brightest title prospects is Mariana Machado in the U20 women’s race. Machado didn’t feature in the top-10 in her two prior appearance at the championships but the 19-year-old took a notable win over 8km in Soria earlier this month, outsprinting Bahrain’s world marathon silver medallist Rose Chelimo.
If Machado prevails in Lisbon, she will become the first Portuguese winner of the U20 race since Augusto won in Malmo, Sweden in 2000.
Portuguese won the senior women’s team title on eight occasions between 1998 and 2010 and they have selected a team full with experience including Ana Dulce Felix, who won four individual medals between 2010 and 2013, and Carla Salome Rocha, the fifth fastest marathon runner in Europe this year with a 2:24:47 PB.
The full Portuguese team can be found <a href='https://www.fpatletismo.pt/equipa-de-portugal-para-os-europeus-de-corta-mato' target='_blank'>here</a>.
Individual Portuguese gold medals at the European Cross Country Championships
1994 - Paulo Guerra (senior men) 
1995 - Paulo Guerra (senior men) 
1999 - Ines Monteiro (U20 women) 
1999 - Paulo Guerra (senior men) 
2000 - Jessica Augusto (U20 women) 
2000 - Paulo Guerra (senior men) 
2010 - Jessica Augusto (senior women)

Portugal's Mariana Machado won a silver medal in the 1500m at the Boras 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships

Mariana Machado

 Hosts Portugal have declared a team of 37 athletes for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on 8 December. Portugal is the fourth most

Machado to spearhead Portugal’s medal challenge in Lisbon

The final entries for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on 8 December have been published and can be viewed <a href='https://directus.european-athletics.com/public/uploads/european-athletics/originals/62cec829-dca7-4d70-8201-e98b06eb5a64.pdf'>here</a> or under Related Documents.
A total of 602 athletes represented 40 countries - including Russian athletes competing as Authorised Neutral Athletes - have been declared across the seven races. The men’s U20 race has the biggest number of entrants on the programme with 115 athletes from 29 countries due to take part.
The entry-lists feature all six reigning individual champions from Tilburg in 2018: Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Italy’s Nadia Battocletti in the U20 races, Denmark’s Anna Emilie Moller and France’s Jimmy Gressier in the U23 races and Norway’s Filip Ingebrigtsen and Turkey’s Yasemin Can in the senior races.
Norway topped the medal table in Tilburg courtesy of the exploits of the Ingebrigtsen brothers - Jakob also led Norway to the team title in the U20 race - but Jakob and Filip are yet to fully decide if they will compete in Lisbon.
France’s Jimmy Gressier will be aiming to win his third successive gold medals in both the individual and team race in the U23 category while Turkey’s Yasemin Can, who missed the majority of the track season due to injury, is targeting a fourth successive title in the senior women’s race.
The senior women’s race also features Ireland’s former two-time winner Fionnuala McCormack who is making her 16th appearance at the European Cross Country Championships - a record for a female athlete at the championships.
The entry-list also features three reigning gold medallists from the Gavle 2019 European Athletics U23 Championships - Ignacio Fontes (1500m), Gressier (5000/10,000m) and Moller (3000m steeplechase/5000m) and six gold medallists from the Boras 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships - Nuno Pereira (1500m), Elias Schreml (3000m), Delia Sclabas (1500m), Zofia Dudek (3000m), Klara Lukan (5000m) and Paula Schneiders (3000m steeplechase).
Twelve teams have also entered the mixed relay including reigning champions Spain and inaugural winners in 2017 Great Britain & NI.
<div> </div>

 The final entries for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on 8 December have been published and can be viewed here or under Related

Final entries available for SPAR European Cross Country Championships

European 10km and half marathon record-holder Julien Wanders from Switzerland will compete at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships for the first time since he was a junior in Lisbon on 8 December.
Wanders’ last appearance at the European Cross Country Championships came back in 2015 when he finished 12th in the U20 race in Hyeres, France - his best showing in his three appearances in this age-group category.
Wanders has competed very sparingly on this terrain since making his transition to the senior ranks but the 23-year-old’s profile has risen hugely in recent seasons courtesy of some stellar performances on the roads, setting European records at 5km (13:29), 10km (27:25) and the half marathon (59:13).
Switzerland has never won a medal - individual or team - in the senior men’s race at the European Cross Country Championships but Wanders will be a strong contender for the title if he can translate the scintillating form he has demonstrated on the roads to an undulating and twisting course at the Bela Vista Park.
 [INSTAGRAM ID='https://www.instagram.com/p/B5DCyTrlFAq/']
The Swiss contingent has won individual medals in the senior women’s race though. Anita Weyermann won the individual gold medal in 1999 before Fabienne Schlumpf won individual silver in Tilburg last year, missing out on the title by just one second.
Wanders has been training for the championships at his usual training base in Iten, Kenya and he will return to racing at the Course de l’Escalade over 7.3km in Geneva on Sunday when he will face the significant challenge of Ethiopia’s Telahun Haile Bekele, the world leader in the 5000m this year at 12:52.98.
In fact, Weyermann’s gold medal in 1999 is Switzerland’s only gold medal in European Cross Country Championships history but it is not inconceivable the Swiss team could leave the Portuguese capital with two titles. 
In the U20 race, Delia Sclabas will be looking to sign off her illustrious junior career by improving on her silver medal from last year. Sclabas, 18, has won seven medals from major age-group track championships since 2016, including gold in the 1500m at the Boras 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships and bronze medals in the 800m and 1500m at the 2018 World U20 Championships.
The full Swiss team can be found <a href='https://www.swiss-athletics.ch/de/blog/2019/11/26/17-athleten-fuer-die-cross-em-selektioniert/' target='_blank'>here</a>. 
<div> </div>

Julien Wanders will contest the senior men's race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on 8 December

 European 10km and half marathon record-holder Julien Wanders from Switzerland will compete at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships for the first time

Wanders to compete at SPAR European Cross Country Championships

Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa will be challenging for his fifth individual medal at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on 8 December.
Crippa has already won back-to-back U20 titles at the championships as well as two individual bronze medals in the U23 category. The 23-year-old had a tough baptism on his senior debut in Tilburg last year when he finished sixth at the Beekse Bergen Safari Park - a position he will be looking to surpass this year.
Crippa finished the track campaign with the fastest time in Europe over 10,000m, setting a national record of 27:10.76 to finish eighth at the IAAF World Athletics Championships to move to third on the European all-time list behind Mo Farah (26:46.57) and Mohammed Mourhit (26:52.30).
 [INSTAGRAM ID='https://www.instagram.com/yemancrippa/']
Crippa, who will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Andrea Lalli who won the senior men's title for Italy in 2012, is part of a 35-strong team for the European Cross Country Championships which also includes his older brother Nekagenet who finished 20th in Tilburg last year.
The Italian contingent will have high hopes in the women’s U20 race in which Nadia Battocletti will be looking to conclude her junior career by successfully defending her individual title. The Italians should perform well in the team race as their team also features Angela Mattevi who won the U20 title at the World Mountain Running Championships last month.
The full Italian team can be found <a href='http://www.fidal.it/content/Europei-cross-35-azzurri-per-Lisbona/124943'>here</a>.
Gressier aiming for a hat-trick of U23 team and individual titles
France’s Jimmy Gressier is targeting a hat-trick of individual gold medals in the U23 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on 8 December.
Only 22, Gressier is already one of the most successful athletes in championship history with six gold medals to his credit. As well as winning the last two individual U23 titles, Gressier led France to the team title on both occasions and he was also part of France’s gold medal-winning team in the U20 race in 2015 and 2016. Gressier further embellished his medal tally at the Gavle 2019 European Athletics U23 Championships, winning gold medals in both the 5000m and 10,000m.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
Jimmy Gressier (<a href='https://twitter.com/jimmy_gressier?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>@jimmy_gressier</a>) is targeting a hat-trick of titles at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on 8 December. 
This is how he won his first title in Samorin in 2017. <a href='https://t.co/PebwIX90eV'>pic.twitter.com/PebwIX90eV</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1199690845575942147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>November 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
The French team had four athletes placing inside the top-10 in Tilburg last year and all four athletes have been named in France’s U23 team for Lisbon. Gressier will be backed up by Hugo Hay, who has also won individual medals at the last two editions of the championships, as well as Fabien Palcau and Louis Gilavert, sixth and ninth respectively last year.
Former European cross country champion Sophie Duarte, 38, has been named on the senior women’s team and France will also be fielding a team in the mixed relay. 
The French team can be found <a href='https://www.athle.fr/asp.net/main.html/html.aspx?htmlid=5967' target='_blank'>here</a>.

Jimmy Gressier clinched back-to-back individual and team titles in the U23 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg

 Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa will be challenging for his fifth individual medal at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on 8 December.

Italy and France confirm teams for SPAR European Cross Country Championships

Olympic 5000m finalist Andrew Butchart headlines a 40-strong British team for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon, Portugal on 8 December.
Butchart, who won an individual bronze medal in Samorin in 2017, is one of 21 athletes selected on the British team to have won a medal at these championships in the past, including 13 from last year’s edition in Tilburg in the Netherlands.
Butchart is joined on the team by trials winner Ben Connor who - like Butchart - was part of Great Britain’s gold medal-winning team at the 2016 European Cross Country Championships in Chia, Italy.
Other notable names on the senior men’s team include Adam Hickey, Great Britain’s youngest ever male medallist (aged 16 in 2004) in championship history. He makes his first European Cross Country Championships appearance since 2015. Patrick Dever, who was the top British finisher at the World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark in March, also makes his senior debut after finishing fifth in the U23 race in 2018.
On the women’s side, trials winner Jess Judd secures her first senior individual cross country vest and goes in search of a seventh championship medal, flanked by teammates Charlotte Arter and nine-time medallist Kate Avery, both of whom took team silver last year in Tilburg.
Judd has won individual medals at both U20 and U23 level and was part of Great Britain’s mixed relay team in 2018.
This year’s mixed relay team consists of Alex Bell, Jonathan Davies, Sarah McDonald and James McMurray who will be looking to reclaim the title they won in Samorin in 2017 - the first time the mixed relay formed part of the European Cross Country Championships programme. 
Great Britain is the most successful nation in the history of the European Cross Country Championships. Since the first edition in Alnwick in 1994, Great Britain has won a total of 155 medals including 62 gold medals. 
The Brits, however, were only fourth on the medal table in Tilburg last year with one gold medal and six in total. Norway topped the medal table with three gold medals. 
The full British team can be found <a href='https://www.britishathletics.org.uk/news-and-features/butchart-headlines-40-strong-british-team-for-european-cross-country-championships/' target='_blank'>here</a>.

Andrew Butchart will be contesting the senior men's race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on 8 December

Andrew Butchart

 Olympic 5000m finalist Andrew Butchart headlines a 40-strong British team for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon, Portugal on 8 December.

Butchart heads 40-strong British team for Lisbon

Spain has named a full size team for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on 8 December.
Not since 2015 have the Spaniards won the men’s senior title but they will be strong contenders for their first title in four years next month. Their line-up is headed by the excellent 20-year-old Ouassim Oumaiz who defeated a stellar line-up at the start of the month in Atapuerca, including four top-10 finishers from the World Cross Country Championships.
The silver medallist behind Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the U20 race twelve months ago, Oumaiz is eligible for the next three editions of the U23 race but he took the decision to forego the intermediate category following a string of excellent early season results on the Spanish cross country circuit. You can find more about the up-and-coming Spaniard <a href='https://www.european-athletics.org/competitions/european-cross-country-championships/news/article=ouassim-oumaiz-spain-big-medal-prospect-lisbon/' target='_blank'>here</a>.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
Can Ouassim Oumaiz win a senior medal at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships? 
At 20, Oumaiz is Spain's big hope in Lisbon next month. 
: <a href='https://t.co/ggAZqyyTgy'>https://t.co/ggAZqyyTgy</a> <a href='https://t.co/8D5nn6ba6v'>pic.twitter.com/8D5nn6ba6v</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1197252980690608130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>November 20, 2019</a> </blockquote>
The senior men’s team is replete with familiar names including Carlos Mayo who makes his senior debut following individual silver medals at both U20 and U23 level at the European Cross Country Championships. Former European 10,000m bronze medallist Antonio Abadia will be making his ninth appearance at the championships while European 3000m steeplechase silver medallist Fernando Carro is another high profile addition to the Spanish team.
The Spaniards have amassed an excellent record in the senior men’s race since the inception of the championships, winning eleven individual and team titles - and 37 medals in total - since 1994. 
Spain’s sole title in Tilburg last year came in the mixed relay and both female runners - Esther Guerrero and anchor runner Solange Pereira - will return for team duties next month. They will join forces this time around with Pablo Sanchez and Sergio Jimenez. 
There will also be high hopes both individually and collectively in the men’s U23 race. Their team includes European U23 1500m champion Ignacio Fontes and European U23 5000m bronze medallist Abdessamad Oukhelfen. 
The full Spanish team can be found <a href='https://rfea.es/web/noticias/desarrollo.asp?codigo=12265#.Xd0-TpP7QUs' target='_blank'>here</a>.
<div> </div>

A multiple medallist at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, Carlos Mayo has been named on Spain's senior men's team for Lisbon

Carlos Mayo

 Spain has named a full size team for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on 8 December. Not since 2015 have the Spaniards won the men’s

Will Spain recapture the senior men’s team title in Lisbon?

Fionnuala McCormack is one of the great stars of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, having won the senior individual title in 2011 and 2012, and she celebrated her ninth Irish cross country crown in Abbotstown on Sunday (25).
She won the senior women’s 8km on a muddy course in 28:41, a victory by almost two minutes from Mary Mulhare in 30:22. History was made yesterday afternoon as McCormack’s younger sister Una Britton was third in 30:32, the first time sisters have stood on the same podium in the senior’s women event. 
McCormack, who will be making her 16th appearance at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon, a record for women competitors, where she will be joined by her sister next month, said: “It's a great day for our family and our club [Kilcoole AC].” 
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
Sister sister! 
Gold and bronze medallists Fionnuala McCormack and Una Britton react after the national cross country 
'It's a great day for our family, our club.' <a href='https://t.co/pggcHPl4vn'>pic.twitter.com/pggcHPl4vn</a>
— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/irishathletics/status/1198618877393018880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>November 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
The senior men’s title and selection for the championships went to Liam Brady won over 10km in 32:50. He credited his father, Kevin, for a stirring pre-race speech. “He said ‘I’ll have an ambulance waiting for you at the end. Thankfully I didn’t need it.'” 
Judd and Connor book places on the British team for Lisbon
A year after running the last leg of Great Britain’s mixed relay team which finished fourth, Jessica Judd will be at this year’s SPAR European Cross Country Championships competing in an individual capacity. 
Judd won the senior women’s 8.1km by 10 seconds in 28:22 from Charlotte Arter with 2014 and 2015 European cross country silver medallist Kate Avery third in 28:40. 
“That’s my best race ever and I am really happy with it,” assessed Judd, speaking to British Athletics. 
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
In the senior women's race it was <a href='https://twitter.com/jessjuddxx?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>@jessjuddxx</a> who crossed in first place and she was clearly delighted having secured her spot on the plane to Lisbon with victory in a wet and windy Liverpool this morning.<a href='https://twitter.com/hashtag/MuddyBrilliant?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>#MuddyBrilliant</a> <a href='https://t.co/UmCjPGGW4V'>pic.twitter.com/UmCjPGGW4V</a>
— British Athletics (@BritAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/BritAthletics/status/1198330941896302592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>November 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
In the senior men’s 9.8km, Ben Connor took early control to win in 30:22 from Mahamed Mahamed, second in 30:27, with Alex Yee in third in 30:35, the latter two who will be contesting the U23 race in Lisbon. 
“The Europeans was a big target for me,” said Connor, who raced over 5000m at the IAAF World Athletics Championships. “I came here to get the job done, I succeeded and the win is even sweeter.”
In the U20 races, Matt Willis won over 6.7km in 21:13 and Saskia Millard won over 4.4km in 15:32 to earn their selection for Lisbon.
Kimeli pips Bouchikhi in Roeselare en route to Lisbon
In an all-Belgian affair in the senior men’s race at the Structabo CrossCup in Roeselare on Sunday (24), Isaac Kimeli outsprinted Soufiane Bouchikhi for the victory with both athletes timed at 30:07 for the 10.1km distance.
Kimeli, who won individual silver behind Norway’s Filip Ingebrigtsen at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg, was initially planning to contest the mixed relay in Lisbon next month but the world 5000m finalist has changed his plans will line up in the senior men’s race instead. 
Kimeli has been one of the most illustrious runners in recent championship history, winning individual silver or gold medals at U20, U23 and senior level. 
In the senior women’s 7km, Hanne Verbruggen took the victory in 24:38.
A top-six finisher at the last two editions of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, Elena Burkard continued her return to good form after injury by winning the senior women’s 6.6km at the Darmstadt Cross on Sunday in 23:29 ahead of Miriam Dattke in 23:48. Ilyas Yonis Osman won the senior men’s 9km in 28:15.
Testing out the course for next month, Andre Pereira and Susana Francisco were triumphant at the Portuguese qualification race in Lisbon on Sunday. Pereira won the men's 9.725km race in 31:39 ahead of Miguel Marques 31:39 with Francisco first in the women’s 7.725km in 28:42, a clear winner from Ercilia Machado, second in 30:17.
Piasecki impresses with a 2:25:29 victory in the Florence Marathon 
Jessica Piasecki was preparing for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg twelve months ago but the Brit has now put herself in contention for a place on the British team at next month’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games after a fantastic performance in the Florence Marathon.
The former European U23 cross country champion broke the tape in the Piazza Duomo in 2:25:29 to move to third on the British all-time list behind Paula Radcliffe (2:15:25) and Mara Yamauchi (2:23:12). Piasecki’s time is also the sixth fastest by a European in 2019. 
But Piasecki is surely capable of improving this time on a faster course. The Florence Marathon course has some twists and inclines but the Brit still covered the second half in a sizeable negative split of 70:59.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
Isn’t it great when a long term plan comes together. 
Thanks to all who have helped along the way <a href='https://t.co/ouzyIdab4c'>pic.twitter.com/ouzyIdab4c</a>
— Jessica Piasecki (@JessCoulson90) <a href='https://twitter.com/JessCoulson90/status/1198606606981877762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>November 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
This was Piasecki’s first completed marathon although she did contest the Frankfurt Marathon in 2015 in a bid to secure the Olympic qualifying time. Piasecki was on course to break the 2:30-barrier but was forced to drop out just after the 30km checkpoint due to a plantar fascia tear. 
Piasecki won by a convincing distance from Ethiopia’s Dinknesh Mekash - the fastest female athlete on the start-line with a 2:23:12 PB - in 2:26:47 with Kenya’s Salina Jebet third in 2:30:28. 
 
<div> </div>

Fionnuala McCormack embraces her sister Una Britton after they finish first and third in the senior women's race at the Irish Cross Country Championships

Fionnuala McCormack

 Fionnuala McCormack is one of the great stars of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, having won the senior individual title in 2011 and 2012, and

Dominant McCormack lands her ninth Irish cross country title in Abbotstown

Hosts of the 2020 edition, Ireland will be fielding full teams in all six individual events, along with a mixed relay team, to Lisbon for this year’s SPAR European Cross Country Championships on 8 December.
The outstanding name on the Irish team is Fionnuala McCormack who will be making her 16th appearance at the championships. No female athlete has amassed more appearances in championship history with only Italy’s Gabriele De Nard (17) and Ukraine’s Sergiy Lebid (19) surpassing McCormack’s tally on the men’s side. 
From finishing 74th in the U20 race in 2001, McCormack won the individual senior title a decade later before successfully defending her title the following year, also leading Ireland to the team title. In total, McCormack has accrued eight top-10 finishes since 2007 and she will be in the hunt for an individual medal after winning her ninth Irish cross country title by nearly two minutes.
McCormack, who set a 2:26:47 PB in the Chicago Marathon in October to qualify for her fourth successive Olympics, is joined on the Irish team by world and European 1500m finalist Ciara Mageean. McCormack’s sister Una Britton has also earned her first Irish senior bib after finishing third at the Irish Cross Country Championships on Sunday.
The senior men’s team is headed by Irish cross country champion Liam Brady while the men’s U20 team features prospective individual medal contender Darragh McElhinney, the bronze medallist in the 5000m at the Boras 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships.
The full Irish team can be found <a href='https://www.athleticsireland.ie/news/european-cross-country-selections/' target='_blank'>here</a>. 
Since the championships were first held in Alnwick in 1994, Ireland has won five gold medals from the SPAR European Cross Country Championships and 12 in total.

Fionnuala McCormack (formerly Britton) won individual titles at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in 2011 and 2012

 Hosts of the 2020 edition, Ireland will be fielding full teams in all six individual events, along with a mixed relay team, to Lisbon for this year’s SPAR

Ireland names full size team for SPAR European Cross Country Championships

When Ouassim Oumaiz lines up in the senior men’s race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on 8 December, there is a very good chance he will be the youngest competitor on the start line. But this is no reason to discount his medal prospects.


Oumaiz only turned 20 in March but in the wake of his outstanding performances in early season Spanish cross country races, he has publicly advertised his ambitious decision to forego the U23 race next month, where a tantalising head-to-head with France’s two-time reigning champion Jimmy Gressier would have beckoned, in favour of facing the seniors who will race over a distance of 10.2km.
Oumaiz showed a glimpse of his vast potential at last year’s SPAR European Cross Country Championships. He kept pace with Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the U20 race until the last lap when the European 1500m and 5000m champion cut loose from the Spaniard to win his third successive title by a solid margin of nine seconds. 
“He is too strong,” acknowledged Oumaiz in his post-race interview with European Athletics. “But in time and with training, I think I can beat him.”
<iframe src='https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanAthletics/videos/922234944567326/&show_text=0&width=476' width='476' height='476' style='border: none; overflow: hidden;' scrolling='no' frameborder='0' allowtransparency='true' allowfullscreen='true'></iframe>
Oumaiz certainly talks a good game but his performances since then have demonstrated this is more than youthful bravado. 
He won the senior title at the Spanish Cross Country Championships in Caceres in March this year before making a quiet impact on his senior debut at the World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, placing a notable 20th on the day of his 20th birthday and finishing ahead of all but one of his European counterparts. 
An anticipated breakthrough on the track didn’t come to fruition as Oumaiz was frustratingly sidelined by a stress fracture in his sacrum but the youngster caused a stir both domestically and internationally in his first race in seven months, winning the prestigious Cross Internacional de Atapuerca at the start of this month by two seconds.
This win came in less than straightforward circumstances as Oumaiz fell on the penultimate lap, losing 30 metres on the lead group which included four top-10 finishers from Aarhus. Oumaiz closed the gap economically before striking out in the latter stages to become the first Spanish winner in eleven years, handsomely surpassing his initial pre-race expectations. 
“The initial objective was to be among the leading Spaniards but on the starting line - after so many months without being able to compete - I thought it was possible to fight for everything,” Oumaiz told Spanish sports daily Marca after the race. 
“When I fell and saw that I was able to get back in contention with the leading group, I realised the race was already mine because I felt very comfortable and fresh at the pace they were setting.”
 [INSTAGRAM ID='https://www.instagram.com/p/B4r2DhOCAC1/']
Oumaiz couldn’t quite reproduce the same form the following weekend in Soria but he still placed a credible fourth, only twelve seconds behind the winner and a long way ahead of his Spanish compatriots who will be counting on Oumaiz to deliver a big performance in the context of an assault on the team title in Lisbon.
Oumaiz was born to Moroccan parents in the town of Nerja on the Costa del Sol in 1999. His father Abderrahim was a national-level distance runner in Morocco and he also coached his son during his formative years in athletics.
But Oumaiz left the family home in September 2017 to further his career, taking the daunting step of moving more than 400 kilometres north to Madrid to train under the instructions of the respected coach Antonio Serrano – the bronze medallist in the senior men’s race at the inaugural European Cross Country Championships in 1994 – whose stable also includes Adel Mechaal and Javier Guerra, both of whom were part of the Spanish team in Tilburg last December which greatly benefitted him. 
“I really like his group because there is a very good feeling among everyone,” Oumaiz told the Spanish federation website. “I also have Adel as a partner training, who is a great inspiration for me, as is Javi Guerra. Being accompanied by the two of them in Tilburg was like being with my father and my mother!”
The silver medal in Tilburg was proof this training environment is paying dividends for Oumaiz although Serrano did gently admonish his charge for his distracting mid-race antics which were captured by the cameras and made some traction on social media, albeit not quite to the same extent as Gressier’s famously unsuccessful attempt at a knee slide through the tape at the finish line.
“Last summer, when I watched Mechaal in the 5000m at the European Championships in Berlin, I saw how Henrik did it with his brother Jakob [referring to their mid-race high five] and I thought: ‘If I have the chance in the future, I will do it to him.’ I recognise I also did it to try to lower his morale a little so that he would think: ‘he is strong’. Anyway, Antonio talked to me and told me that these gestures should not be made so they will not be repeated,” said Oumaiz.
His performances in Atapuerca and Soria have demonstrated Oumaiz has developed in maturity, ability and experience since that breakout performance in Tilburg and the 20-year-old has aspirations beyond the cross country season as well. 
While recovering from his stress fracture, Oumaiz watched the 5000m at the World Athletics Championships in Doha unfold on television without any Spanish representation across the heats but Oumaiz is keen to ensure there will be at least one Spanish vest on the start line in Tokyo. 
'I am capable of doing the Olympic qualifying standard of 13:13.50,” he said. “I really want to make up for last year on the track to see what I am truly worth.”
Notable results:
2016 - European Athletics U18 Championships, seventh (3000m) 
2017 - SPAR European Cross Country Championships, 23rd (U20 race) 
2018 - Great Edinburgh International XCountry, 2nd (U20 race) 
2018 - Spanish Cross Country Championships, 1st (U20 race) 
2018 - Spanish Indoor U20 Championships, 1st (1500m) 
2018 - Spanish U20 Championships, 2nd (1500m) 
2018 - SPAR European Cross Country Championships, 2nd (U20 race) 
2019 - Spanish Cross Country Championships, 1st (senior race) 
2019 - World Cross Country Championships, 20th (senior race) 
2019 - Cross Internacional de Atapuerca, 1st (senior race) 
2019 - Cross Internacional de Soria, 1st (senior race) Lifetime bests:
800m 1:53.43 (2018) 
1500m 3:44.52 (2018) 
3000m 8:12.15 (2018) 
5000m 14:56.19 (2017)

 When Ouassim Oumaiz lines up in the senior men’s race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon on 8 December, there is a very good chance

Ouassim Oumaiz: Spain’s big medal prospect in Lisbon

There is nothing like winning a medal on home soil and that could be the prize awaiting Portugal’s Mariana Machado in just a few weeks’ time.
The SPAR European Cross Country Championships will be held in Lisbon on 8 December and Machado warmed up for the event with a brilliant performance at the Cross Internacional de Soria, Spain, on Sunday (17). 
Machado, who turned 19 only last week, won 3000m silver at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Boras in July but the teenager tasted senior success in Soria, winning over 8km with a brilliant sprint finish. In doing so, Machado became the first Portuguese winner of this race and the first European winner since Zulema Fuentes-Pila in 2002.
Machado won in 27:49, just edging out Bahrain’s former world marathon champion Rose Chelimo who was given the same time. Spain’s Teresa Urbina finished third in 28:01, just ahead of teammate Ana Lozano fourth in 28:05. Both are likely to feature on the Spanish team in Lisbon next month.
Speaking to World Athletics, Machado said: “It’s my second win this cross country season as I won in Palencia (Spain) two weeks ago so I’m on the right path ahead of the European Championships to be held in my country.”
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
The biggest win of Mariana Machado’s career so far! The 19-year-old outsprints Rose Chelimo to win the senior women’s race in Soria. 
She will contest the U20 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon next month.<a href='https://t.co/SnmVf0zLPz'>pic.twitter.com/SnmVf0zLPz</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1196121692973813760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>November 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
Last year in Tilburg, Machado was 15th in the U20 race but she will now be one of the favourites this time, although she will face stern opposition from the likes of reigning champion Nadia Battocletti from Italy and European U20 1500m champion Delia Sclabas from Switzerland. 
Having won in Atapuerca the previous weekend, Spain’s Ouassim Oumaiz was easily the leading home athlete again in fourth this time in the senior men’s race in 10km in 29:28, only twelve seconds behind Ugandan winner Maxwell Rotich.
Qualification for the Portuguese mixed relay team in Lisbon also took place at the Cross Internacional Cidade de Amora on Sunday, with Paulo Rosario and Salome Alfonso the quickest in the 1.5km races in 4:19 and 5:02 respectively.
In the same event, Antonio Silva won the senior men’s race in 28:38 and Mariam Martins took the women’s event in 30:06 to enhance their selection hopes.
Gressier finishes fourth in Allonnes
France’s Jimmy Gressier, 22, is on course for a hat-trick of titles in the U23 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships. On Sunday in Allonnes, he warmed up for Lisbon by finishing fourth in the senior men’s race in Cross Le Maine Libre.
Over 9.04km, Gressier clocked 26:17 in a race won by Uganda’s Oscar Chelimo in 25:32. He was some distance behind the winner but Gressier took some notable scalps, including reigning world U20 cross country champion Milkesha Mengesha in fifth (26:29) and former European senior cross country champion Hassan Chahdi in sixth (29:30). 
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Sophie Duarte, who won the European cross country title in 2013, was the leading Frenchwoman in the senior women’s 6.05km in fifth in 20:18 with Kenyan Jackline Cherono first in 19:05.
At the Cross National Val-de-Marne in Creteil on Sunday, there were French victories for Mehdi Frere in the men’s 8.8 km in 27:16 and Manon Trapp the women 4.5km in 5:04.
Burkard returns from injury with victory in Pforzheim
After missing the summer campaign due to injury, Elena Burkard returned to competition with victory on home soil at the Sparkassen Cross in Pforzheim on Saturday (16).
Fifth and sixth at the last two editions of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, Burkard won the senior women’s 6.6km in 25:04 while Ilyas Yonis Osman won the men’s 9km in 31:51. 
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Belgium’s Isaac Kimeli produced another good run as he chases mixed relay success at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, winning the road 8km at the Corrida Bulloise in Bulle, Switzerland in 22:55.6. 
Elsewhere on the roads, there was a memorable run for Great Britain’s Jake Smith at the Boulogne-Billancourt Half Marathon in Paris, breaking the British U23 record by finishing fifth in 62:02 as Kenya's Felix Kipkoech won in 60:12.
At the Seven Hills Run in Nijmegen, Susan Krumins led the way for the Dutch hosts as she finished fifth in 49:38. World 10,000m silver medallist Letesenbet Gidey from Ethiopia shattered the world 15km best with 44:20.

Portugal's Mariana Machado outsprinted Bahrain's Rose Chelimo to win the senior women's 8km at the Cross Internacional de Soria

 There is nothing like winning a medal on home soil and that could be the prize awaiting Portugal’s Mariana Machado in just a few weeks’ time. The SPAR

Machado achieves a significant win in Soria on the path to Lisbon

A year ago in Tilburg, Denmark’s Anna Emilie Moller showed power and tenacity to win gold in the U23 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships which set in motion a brilliant run of success over the last twelve months.
The Danish star seems poised for a repeat performance in Lisbon in less than a month’s time on 8 December. The 22-year-old produced another brilliant display to win the senior 7.5km title at the Nordic Cross Country Championships in Vierumaki, Finland on Sunday (10).
Moller successfully defended her title in 25:21 as she defeated Sweden’s Sara Christiansson who was second in 25:26 with Norway’s Maria Wagan third in 25:34.
After Moller’s title run in Tilburg last December, she came away with double gold at the European U23 Championships in Gavle, winning both the 3000m steeplechase and 5000m titles on back-to-back evenings before finishing seventh at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha in a European U23 record of 9:13.46. 
As Moller won the women’s race, David Nilsson triumphed for Sweden in the senior men’s 9km over 27:07 with victory by two seconds from Iceland’s Hlynur Andersson with fellow Swede Adhanom Abraha third in 27:10.
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And there was a double success for Norway in the U20 races, as Hakon Stavik won the men’s 6km race in 18:15 and Ingeborg Ostgard won the women’s 4.5km race in 15:32. 
At the Balkan Cross Country Championships in Berane, Montenegro on Saturday (9), Israel’s Yitayew Abuhay was the first man home in the senior 10km as he triumphed in 30:25 from Bulgaria’s Yolo Nikolov (30:26) as he led his Bulgarian team to victory. 
The Ukrainian women dominated the senior 8km race with Nataliya Lehonkova first in 27:34 from Mariya Khodakivskaya in 27:38 and the team title with it. Serbia’s Olivera Jevtic, a multiple medallist at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, was third in 27:48. 
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In the U23 races, Serbia’s Elzan Bibic won the men’s event over 8km in 23:57 and Turkey’s Bahar Atalay took the women’s 6km in 21:02 with Ukraine lifting the team crowns in both races.
In the U20 events, there was more success for Israel with Adisu Guadia victorious in the men’s 6km in 19:13 while Turkey’s Sila Ergun won the women’s 4km in 14:11. 
Oumaiz surprises on home soil with senior victory in Atapuerca
Like Moller, Spain’s Ouassim Oumaiz also left Tilburg with a medal last December – and on home terrain on Saturday he proved age means nothing. 
Oumaiz was the silver medallist in the U20 race behind Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen last year and now 20 - and in his first season in the senior ranks - he was the senior star in Atapuerca on Saturday, achieving a superb victory at the Cross Internacional de Atapuerca. 
Oumaiz surprised the field to win the 9km race in 25:54 ahead of Ugandans Thomas Ayeko and Timothy Toroitich - both of whom were timed at 25:56. As he aims for Lisbon, Oumaiz will now be among the favourites for the U23 title after a display such as this one. 
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In the women’s 8km event, Great Britain’s Charlotte Arter was the leading European finisher in seventh with 26:29 with reigning European U20 champion Nadia Battocletti from Italy 14th in 27:30. Ethiopia’s Senbere Teferi won for the fourth successive year in 25:38.
Eleven months ago Belgium’s Isaac Kimeli won silver in the senior race and he showed in Mol on Sunday that his preparations are going well for another big tilt at the title. 
At the second leg of the Structabo CrossCup, Kimeli won over 9.2km in 29:26 from Germany’s Samuel Fitwi (29:28) and Belgium’s Michael Somers (29:40). Jasmijn Bakker from the Netherlands won the senior women’s 6.2km in 22:35 Hanne Verbruggen in 22:49. 
Domestic wins for Avery and Butchart 
Kate Avery has a brilliant record at the European Cross Country Championships and she showed in Milton Keynes on Saturday that she is great form once again, winning the senior 5.6km title at the British Athletics Cross Challenge in 20:11. Mahamed Mahamed won the men’s 9.05km in 29:37. 
In Kirkcaldy, Andrew Butchart won the men’s 4km at the Scottish Short Course Cross Country Championships in 11:54 with Annabel Simpson landing the women’s title in 13:57.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet'>
Lindsays Short Course XC, Senior Mens Champion 2019 <a href='https://twitter.com/scotathletics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>@scotathletics</a> <a href='https://twitter.com/Central_AC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>@Central_AC</a> <a href='https://twitter.com/lindsaysnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>@lindsaysnews</a> <a href='https://twitter.com/andybutchart91?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>@andybutchart91</a> <a href='https://t.co/2FQvsdjap6'>pic.twitter.com/2FQvsdjap6</a>
— Bobby Gavin (@Bobby_ThatOneMo) <a href='https://twitter.com/Bobby_ThatOneMo/status/1193490902381146112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>November 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
A familiar name was triumphant at the Carsolina Cross in Sgonico as Nekagenet Crippa – brother of Yemaneberhan – won the senior men’s 9 km in 27:47 over Said El Otmani (27:51) and Ahmed El Mazoury (27:55).
In the senior women’s 7km, European U20 5000m champion Klara Lukan from Slovenia won in 25:14 ahead of Italians Valeria Roffino (25:34) and Martina Merlo (25:51).
And in Regensdorf, the Swiss cross country season opened with with Jonas Raess and Chiara Scherrer putting down good markers ahead of Lisbon. Raess won the men’s senior 8.8km in 25:14 and Scherrer took the women’s senior 6.08km in 21:50
European U20 1500m champion Delia Sclabas, who also won silver behind Battocletti in the U20 race in Tilburg last December, won the U20 4.08km in 13:54 by more than 30 seconds. 
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Denmark's Anna Emilie Moller won two gold medals at the Gavle 2019 European Athletics U23 Championships

Anna Emilie Moller

 A year ago in Tilburg, Denmark’s Anna Emilie Moller showed power and tenacity to win gold in the U23 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships

Møller retains Nordic cross country title in Vierumaki

The SPAR European Cross Country Championships have twice taken place in Portugal since 1994 and on both occasions the Portuguese flag was hoisted aloft and the national anthem played out.
The European Cross Country Championships first took place in Portugal in 1997 when the senior men won the team title in Oeiras despite the absence of eventual four-time individual winner Paulo Guerra due to injury.
Thirteen years later and Jessica Augusto and Ana Dulce Felix - both of whom are still active and could feature in the Portuguese team next month - won gold and bronze respectively in the individual senior race, leading Portugal to the team title. There was almost a double for the hosts but the senior men were beaten to the team title by France by a meagre two points.
Portugal’s rich cross country tradition predates the European Cross Country Championships. Carlos Lopes, the 1984 Olympic marathon champion, won three editions of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships between 1976 and 1985, the third of those triumphs on home soil in Lisbon. 
The Portuguese capital of Lisbon has the honour of staging this year’s European Cross Country Championships for the first time and the seven races will take place on an undulating course in the city’s popular Bela Vista Park - the venue for many outdoor festivals and events throughout the year.
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From the seven events to comprise the programme, the women’s U20 is the event which is arguably most likely to foster domestic success as Mariana Machado will be looking to sign off her junior career with a crowd pleasing performance in front of her home supporters.
Machado might not have distinguished herself in her two prior appearances at the European Cross Country Championships but the 18-year-old boasts some of the best track credentials among the athletes in her age-group. Machado finished fourth in the 1500m at the 2018 World U20 Championships and won silver in the 3000m at the 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships.
Last year’s winner Nadia Battocletti from Italy is eligible to defend her U20 title but there will be a new champion of the men’s U20 race for the first time since 2015 as Norway’s three-time Jakob Ingebrigtsen will eschew his final year of eligibility in the U20 ranks.
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Denmark’s Anna Emilie Moller and France’s Jimmy Gressier are both eligible to defend their U23 titles while last year’s senior races were won by Norway’s Filip Ingebrigtsen and Turkey’s Yasemin Can who became the first three-time winner of the senior women’s race.
Aided by two individual gold medals from the Ingebrigtsens, Norway topped the medal table at the European Cross Country Championships for the first time last year with three gold medals ahead of France and Turkey with two titles apiece.
According to the preliminary entries, 547 athletes representing 38 nations are due to participate this year. The programme begins with the men's U20 race at 10:00am local time and all seven races will be streamed live on the European Athletics website.

2018 SPAR European Cross Country Championships

 The SPAR European Cross Country Championships have twice taken place in Portugal since 1994 and on both occasions the Portuguese flag was hoisted aloft and the

One month to go - SPAR European Cross Country Championships

Media accreditation is now open for the Lisbon 2019 SPAR European Cross Country Championships on Sunday 8 December.
Written press and photographers are invited to apply for accreditation by following <a href='https://register.event-works.com/ea/SPAR_EuropeanCrossCountryChampionships2019/e/cp/g/44350/'>this link</a>. Non-rights holders are invited to apply via <a href='https://register.event-works.com/ea/SPAR_EuropeanCrossCountryChampionships2019/e/cp/g/54160/'>this link</a>.
The accreditation deadline with accommodation is 4 November and the accreditation deadline without accommodation is 28 November.
Accommodation 
The official media hotel is the Turim Iberia Hotel. 
Turim Iberia Hotel **** 
Avenida 5 de Outubro 160, 1050-062 Lisboa. 
Phone: +351 21 790 6110 <a href='https://www.turim-hotels.com/index.php'>www.turim-hotels.com</a>
Single room: €80 
Double/Twin room: €90
Quoted prices are per room, per night and include taxes/VAT, breakfast and wifi. Full policy details relating to accommodation can be viewed during the accreditation process.
The Local Organising Committee is in charge of accommodation for this event. The accommodation request will be processed after registration approval and an email will follow to confirm the status of your request. 
NOTE: Due to a change in the way accreditations for European Athletics competitions are processed, ALL media should create a 'new account' with your full details even if you have previously registered or accredited for a European Athletics competition.

 Media accreditation is now open for the Lisbon 2019 SPAR European Cross Country Championships on Sunday 8 December. Written press and photographers are invited

Media accreditation now open for the Lisbon 2019 SPAR European Cross Country Championships

The Portuguese capital of Lisbon will be staging this year’s edition of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships on 8 December.
The annual championships was added to the calendar in 1994 and Portugal will become just the third country to have held the event on three separate occasions after Great Britain (Alnwick 1994 and 1995, Edinburgh 2003) and Italy (Ferrara 1998, San Giorgio su Legnano 2006 and Chia 2016).
Portugal held the event for the first time in Oeiras in 1997 before Albufeira was handed the baton in 2010 and on both occasions the host country came away with gold medals.
Despite the absence of eventual four-time champion Paulo Guerra, Portugal still won gold in the senior men’s race in 1997 before Jessica Augusto won the individual senior women’s title in 2010 and led Portugal to the team title. 
Lisbon also staged the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in 1985 which was highlighted by a gold medal from home favourite Carlos Lopes who famously won the Olympic marathon title in 1984.
With 19 gold medals, Portugal is the fifth most successful nation at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in terms of titles won behind Great Britain (61), France (29), Spain (21) and Turkey (20).
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However it was Norway which topped the medal table at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg last December thanks to a by no means insignificant contribution from the Ingebrigtsen brothers.
Jakob became the first junior to win three successive U20 titles and led Norway to the U20 team title before Filip, who came away from the European Championships empty-handed due to injury, ended his campaign on a high with a masterful display on a rutted course in the senior men’s race.
Turkey’s Yasemin Can also extended her unbeaten streak at the European Cross Country Championships with her third successive title in the senior women’s race and Nadia Battocletti became the first Italian woman to win an individual title in championship history with gold in the women’s U20 race.
Both Ingebrigtsen and Battocletti are also eligible to defend their U20 titles in Lisbon. The women's U20 race could foster some domestic success as Mariana Machado, who finished fourth in the 1500m at the IAAF World U20 Championships, will still be eligible to contest this age-group.
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 The Portuguese capital of Lisbon will be staging this year’s edition of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships on 8 December. The annual championships

Lisbon to stage the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in 2019

Solange Pereira took the very last gold medal of the Tilburg 2018 SPAR European Cross Country Championships when she ran an outstanding last leg in the mixed relay at the Beekse Bergen Safari park to clinch the title for Spain, their first and only victory of the day.
The 29-year-old from town of Cangas – which nestles on the Atlantic coast in the north western province of Galicia just a few kilometres from the Portuguese border, where she was born – took over a few metres behind her French rival Johanna Geyer-Carles but accelerated just over halfway round her 1600m anchor leg on the muddy course to come home two seconds clear of Les Bleus.
'I had a lot of nerves and I was aware of the great responsibility on my shoulders (when she took over from Spain’s third leg runner Victor Ruiz), reflected Pereira in an interview with the Spanish running magazine Corricolari this week. 
“My teammates had done a great race and I had to finish things off. We were in a position for a place on the podium and had the the possibility of fighting for the gold. Bad race management, a fall or any other problem would mean all my teammates' work had been for nothing.”
“After six races, the course was treacherous, and I was constantly looking at the ground to check my steps and avoid falling.
“Once I received the wristband, I was clear about what had to be done, I knew the French athlete (Geyer-Carles) and I knew that if I stayed with her I could fight for the gold medal in the sprint for the line. 
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“I also knew that the athletes coming from behind could get very close and give us a scare, so as soon as we left the area where there were the tree trunks, I looked back and saw that the English athlete (Jessica Judd, who was to eventually finish fourth) was coming, that's when I decided to push because I preferred to ensure that we got at least a silver medal. 
“If the French athlete had not fallen behind a few metres with respect to me, I probably would have put the brakes on, but when I saw her fall back a few metres I knew that the possibility of her getting back in front was going to be much more difficult because the last part of Ã¢&#128;&#139;Ã¢&#128;&#139;the circuit was very technical and close to the trees. ” she added, explaining her tactics and her decisive final surge.
“It was possibly the best day of my life as an athlete. Coming first in a European championships is something I will never forget, I think it will be engraved on my mind forever. The only thing that comes close is when I achieved my 1500m personal best at the Rabat Diamond League (4;06.39 in 2017).
Pereira’s astute tactics earned Spain not only a set of gold medals and a place on top of the podium in the Dutch city but also a trip to the Simplyhealth Great Stirling Cross Country in Stirling on 12 January.
The quartet of Saul Ordonez, Esther Guerrero, Ruiz and Pereira will be reunited but rather than wearing he familiar red-and-yellow apparel of Spain, they will don the uniform of Team Europe in a 4x1000m mixed relay against hosts Great Britain and also the USA at the European Athletics Cross Country Permit Meeting.
The slightly shorter distance in Stirling, compared to the 1600m leg she ran in Tilburg, may be to Pereira's disadvantage but she is determined to enjoy the experience.
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 Looking further ahead, the psychology student – who is also currently taking English classes, which might prove useful in Stirling – is looking to return to Scotland in a couple of months for the Glasgow 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
She ran the 1500m at Belgrade 2017 but didn’t qualify from her heat so her target this time is clear: to make the final.
Pereira suffered the same fate in Berlin 2018 1500m, although she did make the final of the same event in Amsterdam two years earlier, but bounced back from that disappointment two weeks later to win the iberoAmerican 1500m title in Peru at the end of the summer.
Now Pereira has had another taste of winning a top-class competition, who would bet against her making another big step forward in Glasgow? 
<h3> </h3>

Solange Pereira anchored Spain to victory in the mixed relay at the Tilburg 2018 SPAR European Cross Country Championships

Solange Pereira winning the mixed relay for Spain at the Tilburg 2018 SPAR European Cross Country Championships

 Solange Pereira took the very last gold medal of the Tilburg 2018 SPAR European Cross Country Championships when she ran an outstanding last leg in the mixed

Solange Pereira: 'It was possibly the best day of my life as an athlete.'

A true test of cross country running awaited a record number of participants at the 25th SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg on Sunday (9) at the Beekse Bergen Safari Park.
The firm and solid ground in Samorin twelve months ago was replaced by soft and muddy underfoot conditions in Tilburg and the course was especially churned up for the senior races and the mixed relay.
In the first event of the day which took place in teeming rain, there was a first for Italy as Nadia Battocletti became the first Italian woman to win a gold medal in European Cross Country Championships history, winning the U20 race ahead of European U20 3000m champion Delia Sclabas from Switzerland.
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While Italy picked up their first gold medal on the women’s side, Jakob Ingebrigtsen picked up his third on the men’s side in the U20 race. The 18-year-old eased clear on the last lap, opening up a nine second gap on Spain’s Ouassim Oumaiz. Ingebrigtsen also led Norway to the team title.
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In the first of the U23 races, Denmark’s Anna Emilie Moller beat Germany’s Anna Gehring in a sprint finish. This was Moller’s second U23 title after winning the 3000m steeplechase title at the 2017 European Athletics U23 Championships - a title which she is eligible to defend next year.
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Jimmy Gressier looked imperious all the way through the U23 men’s race - that is, until the final few metres. The reigning champion had amassed enough of a margin to showboat but his attempted knee slide through the finish-line didn’t go entirely to plan, stalling on the ground and falling face-first through the tape.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'>
How not to finish a cross country race. <a href='https://twitter.com/hashtag/Tilburg2018?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>#Tilburg2018</a> <a href='https://t.co/2kJ3I6WOFb'>pic.twitter.com/2kJ3I6WOFb</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1071731076404469760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>December 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
But not only did Gressier become the first athlete to win back-to-back titles in the U23 race, he also led France to a successful defence of their team title.
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Yasemin Can has been the dominant force in the senior women’s race since 2016 but this title nearly slipped out of her hands. The Turk won by 15 seconds last year but her winning advantage in Tilburg was slashed to one second, fending off a two-pronged attack in the finishing straight from Switzerland’s Fabienne Schlumpf and Norway’s Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal.
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European 10,000m silver medallist Susan Krumins was run out of the individual medals on the last lap but she did lead the hosts to the team title in the senior race, finishing fourth on home soil in her first appearance at the championships in a decade.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'>
Let the celebrations begin for the Dutch women's senior team! <a href='https://twitter.com/hashtag/Tilburg2018?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>#Tilburg2018</a> <a href='https://t.co/T0UiYmTe8q'>pic.twitter.com/T0UiYmTe8q</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1071776601782681600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>December 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
Filip Ingebrigtsen is renowned for his exploits over 1500m but the reigning world bronze medallist showed his repertoire extends all the way up to - and slightly beyond - 10 kilometres as well. Ingebrigtsen hadn’t distinguished himself in his previous appearances at the championships but he covered the rutted ground effortlessly before utilising his sprint finish to win the 10.3km title ahead of Belgium’s Isaac Kimeli and Turkey’s Aras Kaya.
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The Spanish team for the mixed relay included three members of their bronze medal-winning team from last year. With Solange Pereira on anchor, they upgraded from bronze to gold ahead of France while Belarus took a surprise bronze medal - just their second medal in championship history.
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The 25th SPAR European Cross Country Championships took place in the Beekse Bergen Safari Park in Tilburg on Sunday 9 December

 A true test of cross country running awaited a record number of participants at the 25th SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg on Sunday (9) at

It was a day which had everything: a series of brilliant races, history made with champions successfully defending their titles and, the weather. There was rain, there was sun, it was cold and there was mud. 
As Tilburg proved on Sunday, there is no other event like the SPAR European Cross Country Championships and cross country running returned to its roots on a traditional, European-style course at the Beekse Bergen Safari Park. 
The competition provided a fitting finale to an amazing year of European athletics - which was reflected on by President Svein Arne Hansen at the pre-event press conference - from the drama on the track of Berlin to this spectacular farewell to 2018.
It is simply not just a case of running your own race. That is virtually impossible because of every other element and all of the variables which have to be considered. 
The tone was set from the moment the gun fired for the opening race - the women’s U20 race - when two runners slipped and were faced with a big of group of rivals in the distance which they had to quickly join. 
For some, the rain which came lashing down might have meant a quick revision of just how slippery the course had become - and some longer spikes to adjust accordingly - but it did not matter what experience you had. When conditions change, the mindset has to change with it. 
Take Turkey’s Aras Kaya, the 2016 men’s senior champion who won bronze this time in 28:55 as Norway’s Filip Ingebrigtsen won gold (28:48) and Belgium’s Isaac Kimeli took silver (28:51).
“The course was really, really muddy,” said Kaya. “That made it ever harder to run. I tried to push harder but with the mud and the up and downs, it was really hard.”
On the track, conditions rarely alter during one race. The unexpected of what lies ahead at the European Cross Country Championships makes it not only a brilliant spectacle for those watching on the course and the millions tuned on television, but provides a challenge to an athlete like no other. 
Filip’s brother Jakob was another who was experiencing something new and summed it up perfect by saying it was “fun”. 
“The course was really tough,” said Ingebrigtsen. “I have never done anything like before, so it’s fun for me to compete in these conditions. With all the mud, it was difficult to get in the rhythm. It was tougher than expected but it was fun.” 
And for Ingebrigtsen, 18, it was historic, too, as he won a record third U20 men’s crown in a row with the prospect of a fourth to come in Lisbon next December. 
And to think that Sergiy Lebid’s record of nine senior crowns looked like it would never be matched. Who can predict anything now such has been the emergence of this younger Ingebrigtsen who won his third gold medal of the year after his European 1500m and 5000m triumphs in Berlin August. 
Jimmy Gressier, of France, is fast becoming a social media hit with repeats of his celebrations as he retained the U23 title, with a great run and a dive across the line which ended with him on his knees - and even muddier.
And then there is Turkey's Yasemin Can, who showed what a force she is. She played her tactics to perfection to become the first woman to win the senior title three times, let alone three times in a row, as she held back enough speed to secure victory, defeating the brilliant challenge of Switzerland’s Fabienne Schlumpf in the race of the day. 
Never mind holding her footing, Can chose to beat the elements by wearing a tracksuit top, one more little addition which normally an athlete would not have to experience.
But that is cross country - it is all about the most incredible of tests.
Roll on Lisbon!

Runners had to contend with testing underfoot conditions at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg on Sunday

 It was a day which had everything: a series of brilliant races, history made with champions successfully defending their titles and, the weather. There was

Cross country running returns to its roots in Tilburg

Jakob Ingebrigtsen created history at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg today (9) as he became the first man to win the U20 title three times, bringing just another touch of gloss to his amazing year.
And this time it was not just one gold but two as he led Norway to team glory on a memorable morning for the nation.
This 18-year-old was the toast of Berlin in the summer with his victories in the 1500m and 5000m at the European Championships, producing performances which had reverberations around the world. 
And now back in this age-group event, he never looked stressed - or in too much trouble - even though for long periods he was behind Spain’s Ouassim Oumaiz, who waved to the crowd during periods of the race when he was in front. 
But when it came to the final 1300m of the 6.3km race, Ingebrigtsen looked like he knew he had victory sealed a long way out. Here at the Beekse Bergen Safari Park, it was all about making the best use of conditions that would only become muddier as the morning went on. 
It was raining, just as it had been for the past two days, and it was a course with an early climb, a succession of logs to step over, sand at one stage, then a section of grass after a series of twists and turns track woodland. 
But Ingebrigtsen has become unbreakable and the champion from Chia in 2016 and Samorin in 2017 sealed his success when he moved to the front with 500 metres left. Occasionally touching the barriers to keep his balance, he just broke further clear and celebrated by diving into the mud, winning the 6.3km contest in 18:00 from Oumaiz in 18:09 with Elzan Bibic taking bronze for Serbia in 18:11. 
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“I have never done anything like this before, so it is fun for me to compete in these conditions,” said Ingebrigtsen. “It was a tough race, the course was tough. With all the mud, it was difficult to get in the rhythm.” 
With the top athletes from each squad counting, Simen Halle Haugen was a superb fifth in 18:18 with Hakon Stavik in 22nd in 19:05 to achieve the team gold.
It was close, as they won with 28 points, from Great Britain, led by Jake Heyward in fourth in 18:16, with 30 and Germany in bronze with 38, with Mohamed Mohumed their first man home in sixth in 18:27.
 
Battocletti wins historic gold for Italy
Nadia Battocletti won gold for Italy as the SPAR European Cross Country Championships opened with a dramatic U20 race in Tilburg.
Fifth last year Battocletti, 19, made no mistake as she bided her time after the Netherlands’ Jasmijn Lau had moved to the front on the final of three laps of the 4.3km course in her own bid to bring the host nation glory. 
But the European U20 3000m bronze medallist used her track speed to full advantage to take over with 500 metres left, extending her lead and never looking trouble as she won in 13:46 ahead of Switzerland’s Delia Sclabas (13:47) and Turkey’s Inci Kalkan (13:48). 
Lau was fourth in 13:51 while in fifth, having picked herself up from a fall, was Great Britain’s Amelia Quirk in 13:57, a performance which saw the nation retain team gold. 
“It was a difficult race, not only because of the weather, but also because of the strong opponents, they are all strong opponents,” said Battocletti. “I didn’t expect to win but I dreamed about it. My father, who is also my coach, did say I was going to win.”
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Two runners fell within 20 metres as the Netherlands’ Roos Blokhuis made the first move to lead as the rain greeted the athletes from the start.
This event was wide open, with Ireland’s Sarah Healy one of the big favourites having won the 1500m and 3000m double at the European U18 Championships in Gyor in the summer. 
But Battocletti, who had tested out this course at the Warandeloop in Tilburg last month, led at the end of the first lap in 4.48 alongside Spain’s Carla Gallardo. 
She had done her homework and it was paying off but at the start of the second lap, Healy and Quirk both fell, quickly picking themselves up but needing to overcome that jolt to their system.
By 3000m Battocletti led by a second from Sclabas but Lau then decided it was time she made her mark. With her nation’s colours painted across her face, it looked a decisive move but Battocletti had too much in reserve. 
Sclabas put down a challenge but it was never going to be enough and the Italian blew a kiss as the line drew nearer and could hardly believe it as she broke the tape to triumph, becoming the first Italian woman to win a gold medal in European Cross Country Championships history. 
Great Britain won the team event with 23 points while Lau’s fourth place led to a medal as the Netherlands’ took team silver with 28 points from Turkey, led by Kalcan, winning team bronze. 
“Battling throughout the whole race bring us this second place and it’s even more special that it is our own country, that really helped,” said Lau. “It is amazing to see so many people here.”

Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen wins his third successive U20 title at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships

 Jakob Ingebrigtsen created history at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg today (9) as he became the first man to win the U20 title three

Ingebrigtsen storms to third successive U20 title in Tilburg

After the U20 glory of his brother Jakob a few hours earlier, Filip Ingebrigtsen wrote another amazing chapter into this Norwegian family story with a sensational performance to win the senior men’s race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg today (9). 
Whatever happened here, it had already been the most astonishing year for the Ingebrigtsens after Jakob’s double glory at the European Championships in Berlin.
But now they have two more golds - and three, including Norway’s team title in the U20 race - with Filip showing that he can rule in the mud as much as on the track.
His win ends Turkey’s dominance of this men’s senior event - they had won gold on the past four occasions - and puts Filip right back at the forefront of the sport again. Filip was the arguable favourite for the 1500m title at the European Championships but he faded to 12th in the final after sustaining an injury in the heats while his younger brother soaked up the plaudits.
Ingebrigtsen’s track background meant he had the sprint finish and he executed it at just the right time, moving in front before the last few tricky turns.
He had one gear left after easing past his rivals and then with one final glance behind his shoulder with Kimeli behind him, Ingebrigtsen put his foot down with 120 metres left and he was never going to be beaten. 
He posed a Superman as he celebrated, his arms curved in a pumped up pose, after winning the 10.3km race in 28:49 from Kimeli (28:52), Aras Kaya (28:56) and fellow Turk Kaan Kigen Ozbilen, the defending champion, fourth in 29:04. 
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And there was gold again for Ozbilen as Turkey retained their team title with Polat Kemboi Arikan, the 2014 champion, seventh in 29:14 to make it an impressive first three home for 14 points 
Ahead of Great Britain with 34 and Italy with 37. The Italians were led by Yemaneberhan Crippa - sixth in 29:14 - who now has nine medals from the European Cross Country Championships.
Henrik Ingebrigtsen was 18th in 29:45 in what has been a great year for him, too, with his superb 5000m silver behind Jakob in Berlin and all three of the brothers will be heading to Glasgow for the European Indoor Championships in March in search of more success in what has become a remarkable family. 
“I don’t know what I was a hoping for today,” said Filip. “This is for sure not my distance. I try to improve the weak side of my running and this is one way of doing this. 
“I have competed a couple of times in the U20 and U23 races and I never finished in the top 20. I wanted to run a decent race but to come here and win the senior race with this level of athletes, is something I didn’t dream of. I stayed with the first group and one after one they started to drop.
“And, yes, a second gold medal for the family today. We come from the west coast of Norway, it is always windy and rainy over there, so perhaps it is not coincidence.” 
Kimeli, the U23 silver medallist in Chia in 2016, said: “I am satisfied and it was amazing with all the Belgian fans.” 
A year ago Kaya recovered to finish seventh after falling and he said: “I tried to push harder but with the mud and the ups and downs, it was really hard. In 2016, I won the title, so I am really happy with bronze.”
<div> </div>

 After the U20 glory of his brother Jakob a few hours earlier, Filip Ingebrigtsen wrote another amazing chapter into this Norwegian family story with a

Filip Ingebrigtsen glides to the senior men’s title in Tilburg

Solange Pereira showed her fine sprinting ability to lead Spain to gold in the mixed relay, the finale of a brilliant SPAR European Cross County Championships in Tilburg.
France had led on all three of the changeovers over the 5.8km course, leaving Johanna Geyer-Carles to take the armband from four-time European 3000m steeplechase champion Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad in pursuit of the title.
She was four metres ahead of Pereira but the Spanish runner, who has a 4:06.39, was always within touching distance and she moved ahead in the latter stages of the lap to bring the team home.
Spain won in 16:10 from France in 16:12 with a dramatic and surprise bronze for Belarus in 16:21 ahead of Great Britain, fourth in 16:24. Great Britain, the reigning champions, had been third on the second and third changeovers but Belarusian Volha Nemahai never gave up chasing Jessica Judd.
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And with the finish line just 50 metres away, Nemahai went past the Brit to secure third spot and just the country's second medal in championship history.
“We didn’t tell anybody but we really planned on getting a medal here. I was listening to my coach and just running,” said Nemahai.
But the plaudits went to the Spanish quartet whose team featured three of the medallists from their bronze medal-winning team last year. Pereira said: “I am so excited right now, I cannot even believe it. We are European champions.”
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'>
Hugs all round for Spain!<a href='https://twitter.com/hashtag/Tilburg2018?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>#Tilburg2018</a> <a href='https://t.co/8RwFpamAfn'>pic.twitter.com/8RwFpamAfn</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1071771950186344448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>December 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
It is the second year of this mixed relay, with men on the first and third legs and women on the second and fourth. Alexis Miellet took over for France, leading at the changeover from Spain’s Saul Ordonez and Jensen.
Renelle Lamote maintained France’s lead from Esther Guerrero with Great Britain moving into third after a fine leg from Alexandra Bell.
She handed on to Phil Sesemann with the nation in the bronze medal spot behind the French and Spanish.
On the third leg, Mekhissi-Benabbad looked smooth as Victor Ruiz tailed him and though Sesemann had a bad slip, he quickly recovered and at the final change the order was still France, Spain and Britain.
It could not have been closer but Pereira in the end had too much and the title was Spain's.

 Solange Pereira showed her fine sprinting ability to lead Spain to gold in the mixed relay, the finale of a brilliant SPAR European Cross County Championships

Triumphant Spaniards clinch gold in the mixed relay in Tilburg

Jimmy Gressier stamped his authority all over the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg today (9) as he became the first man to retain the men’s U23 crown. 
He did not put a foot wrong – that was until he reached the finish line. Holding a French flag in each hand, Gressier looked like he was attempting to dive over the line in celebration but he landed on his knees and slid across. 
It was the only mistake he made all race but at that point it did not matter. There were smiles all around at the final for a 21-year-old who is now one of the great champions of the European Cross Country Championships after this outstanding title defence.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'>
How not to finish a cross country race. <a href='https://twitter.com/hashtag/Tilburg2018?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>#Tilburg2018</a> <a href='https://t.co/2kJ3I6WOFb'>pic.twitter.com/2kJ3I6WOFb</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1071731076404469760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>December 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
Gressier said: “The biggest difference compared to last year is that I was the one chasing and this year I was the one getting chased. I am just very happy to win for the second time. The conditions were difficult but the course was still really nice despite the weather.”
Front running for much of the 8.3km course, he fended off the close challenge of Germany’s Samuel Fitwi over the final 1300m and just became stronger. 
Gressier won in the mud by eight seconds in 23:37 from Fitwi, with his fellow Frenchman Hugo Hay in third in 23:48 as they retained the team crown they had won in Samorin.
Fitwi said: “I am happy with my second. I came here to win a medal and this was the best result I could get today. I felt the rain but I did not really feel cold.”
The sport might not have heard too much from Gressier since his glory with a superb sprint 12 months ago but when it comes to this terrain, and today was as difficult as there is with rain pouring down, he showed that cross country really is his event. 
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By the time they hit the 7000m mark, Gressier had created a four second gap as he led in 19:45 and was stretching further away with every side. Wearing a cap the wrong way round, and never struggling with his stride as the course became even tougher, Gressier was full of confidence. 
The line was still a long way out on the final lap but showing real authority, he sailed over the logs for the final time and when he looked over his shoulder, Fitwi was even further behind. 
France won team gold by an impressive 19 points as they banked 11 with Great Britain taking team silver. Patrick Dever was first home in fifth in 24:05 with Spain, led by Tariku Novales in sixth, winning team bronze with 42 points.
 
Moller duly doubles Denmark's title haul
It had been 21 years – or 7665 days to be exact – since Denmark had won their only gold medal at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
But now the nation has a new star to go alongside Carsten Jorgensen from all those years ago after Anna Emilie Moller bided her time to steal the show in the women’s U23 race in Tilburg. 
The U20 silver medallist in Chia in 2016, Moller is a champion in her own right to further underline her brilliant talent, winning over 6.3km in 20:34 from Germany’s Anna Gehring in 20:36 and Poland’s Weronika Pyzik in 20:46. 
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And from individual silver, there was also gold for Gehring as she led her nation to the top of the podium in the team event. 
Moller was 10th in the pack over the first lap, allowing the structure of the race to pan out before deciding when to make her move. 
It was a large lead pack of 13 and there was no need for Moller, the pre-race favourite, to be too concerned. She was here after winning gold at the Nordic Cross Country Championships and as the race reached the 4000m she was just moving that bit closer. 
Gehring stretched away but Moller quickly moved into second as the pack broke into seven and then it became three, with Gehring now just looking the stronger from Moller and Switzerland's Chiara Scherrer.
On one of the last uphill climbs, Moller moved closer before overtaking Gehring, the 2016 U23 silver medallist with the finish line in sight. 
Yet Gehring still had team gold as Germany finished with 22 points from Spain with 25, with Celia Anton in fifth in 20:57, as Great Britain took bronze with 33, with Griffiths their first runner home in seventh in 21:04.
<div> </div>

 Jimmy Gressier stamped his authority all over the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg today (9) as he became the first man to retain the

Gressier and Moller share the U23 spoils in Tilburg

Yasemin Can ran her way into athletics history by completing a hat-trick of gold medals in a gripping race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg on Sunday (9). 
Once more this title is the hands of the Turkish superstar, who becomes the first woman to win it on three occasions but unlike her dominance in Chia and Samorin, her victory here was not decided into the final few metres of this 8.3km race. 
Under pressure, Can showed she had enough to eventually power home and shake off the challenge of Switzerland’s Fabienne Schlumpf and the exciting late charge of Norway’s Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal.
Having won by 10 and 15 seconds respectively in her two previous victories, the results tell the story of how tough it was on a decidedly softer and more technical course compared to her previous two title triumphs.
This year Can won by just one second over 8.3km from Schlumpf - 26:05 to 26:06 - with Grovdal third, a further second behind. In fourth in 26:16, Susan Krumins made it a great day for the host nation as she spearheaded the Netherlands’ team gold. 
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'>
Let the celebrations begin for the Dutch women's senior team! <a href='https://twitter.com/hashtag/Tilburg2018?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>#Tilburg2018</a> <a href='https://t.co/T0UiYmTe8q'>pic.twitter.com/T0UiYmTe8q</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1071776601782681600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>December 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
The big question was whether Can was going to be the force of the past two years, having had a summer in which she failed to defend her European 5,000m and 10,000m titles in Berlin.
Perhaps fearing more rain, she ran in a tracksuit top and after Portugal’s Sara Moreira had led them through the first 1000m with Can in fifth, it all changed. 
The Turkish athlete gradually moved to the front from Grovdal, Schlumpf, Great Britain’s Melissa Courtney and Krumins and by the 2500m split, Can had taken over but on this occasion, it was not going to be business as usual. Krumins stayed close behind with Schlumpf and Grovdal not far away. 
Can was trying to break this strong field as early as she could but Schlumpf had other ideas on a course where she had won the Warandecross only a few weeks earlier. 
Never mind the undulations, the logs, the big mud patches, whatever Can did, Schlumpf went with her as this pair went head-to-head with Krumins and Grovdal seemingly racing for bronze. 
It was impossible to guess who would win, with the pair trading places. At the bell - with the final lap of 1300m left - they hit it together at 21:55 with Grovdal and Krumins nine seconds behind but closing.
On the twisting course through the woods, Can edged ahead and then Grovdal launched a late attack, moving nearer to the leaders. 
The finish line almost in view and Can found just that extra edge to create the smallest of gaps, but it was big enough to ensure the title would be hers again as Schlumpf stayed strong for second with Grovdal, going faster with every stride, having to settle for her fourth successive bronze. 
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It was a race to remember and Can, who turns 22 on Tuesday, said: “It was nice that I had a good battle with Fabienne. I wasn’t 100 percent this season but now I am coming back. And yes - I felt some kind of pressure as the defending champion.”
Schlumpf said: “I am super happy with second. The race was incredible and the crowd was amazing.”
A year ago Grovdal was 16 seconds behind Can. She was much closer twelve months later although the Norwegian did rue her tactics. 
“I am very happy with my medal, it is now my fourth in the European Championships,” said Grovdal. “I had so much power in the end, I actually hoped that we would have one more lap. When the bell rang I was disappointed as I thought we would have two more laps to go.” 
There was delight for the hosts as they won team gold with 20 points, as Krumins was joined in the scoring by Jip Vastenburg, who was fifth in 26:45 and Maureen Koster who was 11th in 27:08. 
They won by four points from Great Britain, whose first runner home was Charlotte Arter in seventh in 26:57. Germany took team bronze, led by Elena Burkard in sixth in 26:53.
<div> </div>

Turkey's Yasemin Can won her third successive senior women's title at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg

 Yasemin Can ran her way into athletics history by completing a hat-trick of gold medals in a gripping race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in

Can passes the pressure test to secure a hat-trick of titles in Tilburg

The traditional pre-event press conference for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships saw a packed audience in the quaintly named Adventure Room at the Beekse Bergen resort in the Dutch city of Tilburg, which will be the venue for the 25th edition of the competition.
“We have a record number of participants and what looks like a record number at a press conference,” joked European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen to open proceedings. However, with almost 600 runners expected to be on the start-line of the seven races on Sunday, it looks likely that the previous high of 561 athletes who competed in Samorin 12 months ago will be exceeded.
The level of media interest in this year’s championships demonstrates the high profile of the competition and the Dutch athletics family’s enthusiasm for cross country, with an estimated 8,000 spectators predicted line the course.
“This follows up some fantastic championships we’ve had already – Gyor (the European Athletics U18 Championships) was great and Berlin 2018 was something special – and a fantastic year for European Athletics we’ve had so far,” added Hansen.
Dutch Athletics Federation President Eric van der Burg was the deputy mayor of Amsterdam during the time when the city staged the European Athletics Championships in 2016 and he predicted that people will also look back on this event fondly in the years to come.
“In Amsterdam, we had the slogan ‘Like Never Before’ and this time it’s ‘Creating Crossovers’ because about the athletes and athletics fans who are here but we want to take this event into the lives of people who don’t normally love athletics and show them about how beautiful our sport is,” commented van der Berg.
“We also have a special ‘Holland Hill’ on the course. When we heard that the Belgian fans were going to congregate on one corner then it was obvious that we have to create our own spot,” he added, although space might be at a premium with local media reports that up to 10,000 spectators may line the course on Sunday.
The course itself, in the middle of a wildlife park, is certainly unique in the history of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships – and is among the reasons why van der Berg thinks that the championships will resonate with many people from beyond hardcore athletics fans – and got enthusiastic applause from the runners present at the press conference.
 [PHOTO src='1285751' size='mediumLandscape' align='right'] 
“My room is right in front of the lions so some of the other members of the team set up some speakers and started playing in some noises through the window,” recounted Spain’s Adel Mechaal, who finished second in Samorin 12 months ago and who is also the reigning European indoor 3000m champion.
“It’s quite something, you don’t normally associate elephants and camels with the Netherlands,” joked Jessica Piasecki, Great Britain’s 2012 European U23 champion who is returning to compete in this event after an absence of six years.
On a more serious note, Piasecki quickly ran the rule quickly over what the runners will have to deal with underfoot on Sunday.
“It’s challenging; it’s got different sections: muddy bits, dry bits, it could be anybody’s day. This is quite a ‘European’ course, twists and turns and logs.
Mechaal added, “I came here thinking it was going to be so muddy, but it was not so muddy [at the course inspection earlier on Saturday] so I’m now ready to fight for a medal again.” 
His thoughts were echoed by local star Maureen Koster, the 2015 European indoor 3000m bronze medallist who is part of a strong Dutch senior women’s team. “It has changed a bit from two weeks ago [at the Warandecross, a European Athletics Cross Country Permit Meeting on the same course which was also a test event for these championships] but I expected more mud so it’s still pretty fast,” she explained.
 [PHOTO src='1285752' size='mediumLandscape' align='right'] 
Perhaps the most vociferously supported of any athlete in Tilburg will be Dutch U20 hope Luuk Maas, who was the winner of the U20 race at the Warandeloop and a member of the Tilburg Road Runners.
The 19-year-old has been in fine form this winter and leads Dutch ambitions of getting a medal for just the second time in this category. “I think I will have between 20 to 25 close family and friends here tomorrow besides all the other Dutch athletics fans,” said Maas, who has been a frequent visitor to the wildlife park on family visits in the past when he hasn’t had his running shoes on.
By contrast to Maas, at 33 Michel Butter is one of the oldest runners in the Dutch squad but had never visited Beekse Bergen before. He also couldn’t pass up the opportunity either of having his family watch him in action. 
“I had to tell my two-and-a-half year old daughter that I was going on holiday but she could come too,” joked Butter, who will be competing in his 12th SPAR European Cross Country Championships, a feat only two other men have surpassed.
He is also one of the few runners this year to have also competed in Tilburg the last time the championships were here, back in 2005.
“A lot has changed since then, not just the course. I used to have blond hair and earrings and look at me now,” he joked, reflected on his own image as a more sober family man, also expressing a desire to emulate or improve on his best championships finish on ninth from 2008.

European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen reflected on a memorable season of athletics at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships press conference in Tilburg on Saturday

Svein Arne Hansen

 The traditional pre-event press conference for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships saw a packed audience in the quaintly named Adventure Room at the

Live streaming for the 25th SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg, the Netherlands will be available on the European Athletics website from 10:30am local time (CET) on 9 December.
The service is available to watch at <a href='http://www.european-athletics.org/competitions/european-athletics-u20-championships/news/article=live-streaming-from-the-european-athletics-u20-championships/www.european-athletics.org'>www.european-athletics.org</a> and is provided by European Athletics’ International Partner EBU-Eurovision.
All seven races will be streamed live and accompanied by expert English-language commentary beginning with the women’s U20 race at 10:45am and concluding with the mixed relay at 2:55pm.
The stream will be geo-blocked in Great Britain, Norway and Belgium (French territory) and the senior races and mixed relay will be geo-blocked in the Netherlands.
Viewers from these regions will be able to watch the European Cross Country Championships live on the following channels:
Great Britain - BBC 
Norway - NRK
Netherlands - NPO 1 (senior races and mixed relay)
Belgium (French territory) - RTBF
There will also be comprehensive coverage of the European Cross Country Championships on the European Athletics website and across our social media platforms.
<a href='https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanAthletics/'>Facebook</a> 
<a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics'>Twitter</a>
<a href='https://www.instagram.com/europeanathletics/'>Instagram</a>
<a href='https://www.youtube.com/user/EuropeanAthletics'>YouTube</a>

Samorin 2017 SPAR European Cross Country Championships men's senior race

 Live streaming for the 25th SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg, the Netherlands will be available on the European Athletics website from

Live streaming available for SPAR European Cross Country Championships

No athlete has won senior women’s gold at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships more than twice but on Sunday (9) in Tilburg, Yasemin Can will look to become the standout star of the event.
Recent editions of the championships have been staged on firm terrain but the course at the Beekse Bergen Safari Park is expected to be muddy and heavy underfoot. This will only add to the drama, not to mention the technical skill needed to keep your balance while deciding when is the right time to make that decisive move.
Turkey’s Can is pretty good at those choices, dominating the event on her debut in Chia where she won by 10 seconds in 2016 before defending her title in Samorin last year, extending her winning margin out to 15 seconds.
With victory last year, Can joined Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack (2011, 2012) as the only woman to retain this senior crown, with Brits Paula Radcliffe (1998, 2003) and Hayley Yelling (2004, 2009) as the only other athletes to have won it twice.
Can could create a piece of history as she pursues a hat-trick but perhaps this time she face the toughest test of her brilliant credentials.
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A total of 81 athletes have been entered from 20 countries for the penultimate individual race on Sunday - a 8.3km event over six laps: one lap of 1000m, four of 1500m and one of 1300m. Muddy conditions are predicted and the course should be particularly churned up for the senior races which should add even more spice to the spectacle. 
Looking down the list of runners, there will be big rivals to Can everywhere and for the Netherlands’ Susan Krumins, just thinking back to the summer will surely give her even greater hope - as will memories of ten years ago when she won the U23 title in Brussels in her last appearance at the European Cross Country Championships.
Can was the defending 10,000m champion at the European Championships in Berlin but as she faded to fifth in sweltering conditions in the German capital, Krumins ran the race of her life to win silver behind Israel’s Lonah Chemtai Salpeter.
<blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'>
Did you know Susan Krumins has placed inside the top eight at the last seven major championship 5000m finals? <a href='https://twitter.com/hashtag/FactFriday?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>#FactFriday</a> 
Next stop: European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg on 9 December! <a href='https://twitter.com/hashtag/Tilburg2018?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>#Tilburg2018</a> <a href='https://t.co/s8dkzzjy1h'>pic.twitter.com/s8dkzzjy1h</a>
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href='https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1068559943333236736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>November 30, 2018</a></blockquote>
Now they meet again with Krumins spearheading a Dutch squad of Jill Holterman, Maureen Koster, Julia van Velthoven and Jip Vastenburg. Despite the absence of Sifan Hassan due to illness, the Dutch team will be strong contenders for medals in both the individual and team race.
Home success in a senior race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships does not happen very often but it did in 2005 when Tilburg first staged the event. On that day, Lornah Kiplagat strode to victory for the hosts.
The last time there was a home winner in a senior race was in 2010 when Jessica Augusto triumphed in Lisbon for Portugal. She is back in the squad for the first time since that victory eight years ago and she is joined by the equally experienced Sara Moreira, who has won team gold on three occasions.
In Samorin, Norway’s Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal won her third successive bronze medal, 16 seconds behind Can and she will be looking to be closer this time – both in time and position – in a year in which she won also bronze in the 3000m steeplechase in Berlin.
Switzerland’s Fabienne Schlumpf finished one place ahead of Grovdal at the European Championships and she has finished inside the top eight at the last two European Cross Country Championships. Schlumpf will be better prepared than most on the start-line, having won the Warandecross last month which was staged on the same course.
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Great Britain’s Kate Avery has some record at the championships with eight medals including three team golds and two individual silver medals. As she continues her comeback from injury, Avery was fifth at the British Trials which was won by Charlotte Arter.
Great Britain won team gold in 2017, a title they will be determined to retain. The Dutch will be strong on home soil and the Romanians, who won silver in the team race last year, will be equally strong. Their team includes last year’s fourth-placer Roxana Barca and Ancuta Bobocel, who won the U20 title when the European Cross Country Championships were staged in Tilburg in 2005.
Trihas Gebre, who was Spain’s first athlete home in 13th last year, also returns while former champion Sophie Duarte and Liv Westphal will be among the big hopes for France.

A decade after winning the U23 title, European 10,000m silver medallist Susan Krumins is one of the leading contenders for the senior women's title at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg on Sunday

Susan Krumins

 No athlete has won senior women’s gold at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships more than twice but on Sunday (9) in Tilburg, Yasemin Can will look

Senior women’s preview: strong opposition awaits two-time champion Can 

In the past four stagings of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, the individual senior’s men title has been won by a Turkish athlete and two of the last four team titles have also been won by Turkey. Of those four champions, three of them return to Tilburg on Sunday (9) for what could be an epic race.
Kaan Kigen Ozbilen is the newest of those gold medallists, taking a come-from-behind victory by nine seconds in Samorin last year. Ozbilen followed in the footsteps of Aras Kaya and Polat Kemboi Arikan - the winners in 2016 and 2014 respectively - who were also seventh and ninth last year. 
Ozbilen was delighted with his success, saying in the aftermath of victory: “I was injured when I was 10th last year [in 2016] and I am so happy I could make up for it this time.” 
And if any of the these three champions triumph again, they will join the small band of legends of the European Cross Country Championships to have won the title on two or more occasions. 
At the moment that roll-call stands at three: Ukraine’s Sergiy Lebid, with his astonishing nine individual golds; Portugal’s Paulo Guerra, the inaugural champion in 1994 and a runner who went on to win it three more times; and Spain’s Alemayehu Bezabeh who triumphed twice: in 2009 and 2013.
Not since Lebid retained the title in Brussels 2008 has an athlete successfully defended their crown which could provide Ozbilen with even more desire for a repeat performance.
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When he looks around the field for a race over 10.3km, there will be some familiar faces – and not just among those wearing the Turkish colours.
Adel Mechaal, the silver medallist from 12 months ago, is back again along with former U20 and U23 champion Hassan Chahdi from France who was fourth in the senior race last year. 
Could Mechaal be the man to break the Turkish dominance? He is one the right path having won bronze in 2015 before improving to silver in 2017. 
One of the biggest threats to Ozbilen will be from the Italians who include in their senior squad for the first time one of the great young stars of European athletics: Yemaneberhan Crippa.
At 22, he already has four individual medals from the European Cross Country Championships, with U20 gold in 2014 and 2015 and bronze in the U23 race in 2016 and 2017. 
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His medal collection grows by the event as he proved this summer when he won 10,000m bronze at the European Championships in Berlin. 
Crippa, who has won eight medals in total, is part of a strong Italian squad which also includes his older brother Nekagenet. The other standout name on their team is Daniele Meucci, the European marathon champion in Zurich four years ago. 
The Crippas are by no means the only brothers racing in the senior men’s race as the Norwegian team is spearheaded by Henrik and Filip Ingebrigtsen. Henrik has the better cross country record of the two, winning the U23 title in 2012 and finished eleventh last year on his return from injury. 
Great Britain won team bronze last year behind Turkey and Spain and their team is headed by trials winner Charlie Hulson and 2016 Olympian Ross Millington, who is back from injury. Andy Vernon is a late withdrawal due to injury. 
Isaac Kimeli, who won the U23 title in Chia two years ago, will lead the Belgian charge while Florian Orth could be Germany’s main man. 
The host nation, the Netherlands, have a squad of four: Michel Butter, Khalid Choukoud, Roy Hoornweg and Ronald Schroer. Butter and Choukoud are two of the stalwarts of the Dutch team, both representing the Netherlands when Tilburg first staged the European Cross Country Championships in 2005.
This last individual event of the day consists of six laps of 1500m and a final lap of 1300m where the medals will undoubtedly be decided. The entry-list includes 99 athletes from 26 nations.

Kaan Kigen Ozbilen ran a measured race to defeat Spain's Adel Mechaal in the senior men's race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships

Patience pays dividends for Ozbilen in senior men’s race in Samorin

 In the past four stagings of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, the individual senior’s men title has been won by a Turkish athlete and two of

Senior men’s preview: Ozbilen and Mechaal headline a star-studded field

Jimmy Gressier just missed out on a place on the podium in the U20 race in 2015 and 2016 but the Frenchman produced an electric sprint finish to win the U23 title at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Samorin last year and he will be defending his title on Sunday (9).
The race was largely billed as a head-to-head between European U23 5000m and 10,000m champions Yemaneberhan Crippa from Italy and Carlos Mayo from Spain but Gressier had the beating of the favoured track exponents, leading a French one-two ahead of Hugo Hay.
With four counters placing inside the top seven, France ran out comprehensive winners of the team title twelve months ago as well. Their team is again headed by Gressier and Hay and even though their two other scoring athletes have since graduated into the senior ranks, their replacements Louis Gilavert and Yani Khelaf were third and fourth respectively in the U20 race last year.
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The biggest danger to the French contingent might come from Germany in the shape of Samuel Fitwi, who will be making his championship debut after gaining German citizenship earlier this year. Fitwi easily won the senior trial race in Darmstadt a fortnight ago.
Belgium won silver in the team race last year and they have named another strong team headed by Simon Debognies who will be making his final appearance in the U23 ranks. He was Belgium’s first counter in sixth last year and won silver over 5000m at the European U23 Championships. Debognies is joined by the likes of Dieter Kersten and Dorian Boulvin - the latter was 14th last year.
Other medal candidates include 20-year-old Adrian Ben who represented Spain over 1500m at the European Championships in Berlin and Romania’s Dorin Andrei Rusu, the reigning 10,000m champion from the European U20 Championships.
The U23 men’s race will be held over 8.3km. After an opening lap of one kilometre, the runners will complete four laps of 1500m followed by a bell lap of 1300m. 
Moller to face a strong German contingent for the U23 title
Anna Emilie Moller could be forgiven if she doesn’t remember Denmark’s only gold medal in European Cross Country Championships history thus far.
Moller was only four months old when Carsten Jorgensen won the senior men’s title in Oeiras, Portugal in 1997 but the reigning European U23 3000m steeplechase champion could double Denmark’s title haul on Sunday.
Moller arrives in Tilburg with a string of recent victories and podium finishes under her belt, including a gold medal-winning performance at the Nordic Cross Country Championships in Reykjavik.
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The 21-year-old also has a fine record at the European Cross Country Championships which she will be looking to extend in Tilburg. Moller has accrued four individual top-eight finishes from as many appearances across the U20 and U23 divisions, including silver in the U20 race in 2016.
On that day, Moller won silver behind Germany’s Konstanze Klosterhalfen. Klosterhalfen and reigning U23 champion Alina Reh are both absent this year but Germany will still be strong contenders for the individual and team titles. Their standout athletes are European U20 5000m champion Miriam Dattke and Anna Gehring, the silver medallist in the U23 race in 2016.
Other medal contenders include Switzerland’s Chiara Scherrer and Great Britain’s Amy Griffiths, who finished fifth in the U23 race last year.
The women’s U23 race will be held over 6.3km. After two circuits of 1000m, the runners will compete two laps of 1500m followed by a closing lap of 1300m.

 Jimmy Gressier just missed out on a place on the podium in the U20 race in 2015 and 2016 but the Frenchman produced an electric sprint finish to win the U23