The whole lot you’ll want to know concerning the European Cross Nation Champs in Antalya on Sunday December 8
The thirtieth version of the European Cross Nation Championships will happen in Turkey this weekend, with town of Antalya set to host Europe’s best runners for the primary time.
Nice Britain enters the championships with an unmatched legacy, having claimed a powerful 188 medals for the reason that occasion first began in 1994. Their dominance is obvious, with France behind in second place with 106 medals.
Final 12 months, the one British athletes to return with out a medal have been the senior males’s group, one thing they are going to be keen to vary this time round.
Reigning champions Innes FitzGerald and Will Barnicoat are again to defend their titles. FitzGerald, who took the ladies’s under-20 crown final 12 months, and Barnicoat, who triumphed within the males’s under-23 race, will each be eyeing one other victory on the Antalya course.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen missed final 12 months’s championships in Brussels as a consequence of harm however the Norwegian is returning this 12 months. The 24-year-old, a four-time winner of the under-20 title between 2016 and 2019, clinched the senior males’s title in 2021 and 2022.
Norway could have hopes for a double victory in each senior races as Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal might be seeking to safe a fourth consecutive girls’s title. Nonetheless, she’s going to face powerful competitors from Italy’s Nadia Battocletti.
Within the under-20 males’s race, Niels Laros of the Netherlands might be a standout contender after his spectacular observe season and might be hoping to cap off his junior profession with a gold medal.
Whereas the course in Antalya is anticipated to be far drier than the boggy situations at this 12 months’s Euro trials in Liverpool, it’s throughout altering terrain from filth street, grass, mud and sand. The climate is anticipated to be comparatively delicate, with an opportunity of rain including a component of unpredictability.
Kate Axford and Tomer Tarragano take Euro trials victory in Liverpool
The occasion might be stay streamed right here whereas BBC can be displaying the races on its purple button with a highlights present on BBC2 at 4:05pm on Sunday.
Timetable (native instances)
11:00 – U20 girls (4814m)
11:29 – U20 males (4814m)
11:55 – Combined relay (6324m; 1 x 1710m; 2 x 1510m; 1x 1594m)
12:25 – U23 girls (6324m)
13:00 – U23 males (6324m)
13:31 – Senior girls (7834m)
14:11 – Senior males (7834m)
Karoline Grovdal leads Abbie Donnelly in Brussels (Getty)
Senior girls
Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal isn’t any stranger to success on the championships. Having claimed the under-20 title again in 2009, the Norwegian has since captured senior victories in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
The 34-year-old’s outstanding profession is highlighted by a record-breaking 10 particular person medals on the Euro Cross in addition to breaking Ingrid Kristiansen’s long-standing nationwide 5000m report by six seconds in 2021 with 14:31.07.
Final 12 months in Brussels, Grøvdal stormed forward of Italy’s Nadia Battocletti with a decisive transfer on an uphill part of the ultimate lap. She completed 45 seconds forward of Battocletti, securing her tenth European Cross medal total.
She is one in every of solely three athletes to have gained three consecutive titles, becoming a member of Turkey’s Yasemin Can, who reigned from 2016 to 2019 within the senior girls’s class, and Ukraine’s Sergiy Lebid, a nine-time senior males’s champion.
Nadia Battocletti (Getty)
However this 12 months, Grøvdal faces a critical problem from Battocletti, who has been virtually unstoppable currently. The under-23 Euro Cross winner in 2021 has had an unbelievable observe season, profitable the 5000m and 10,000m on the European Championships on house soil in Rome as she ended her season with an Olympic silver medal within the 10,000m.
As Grøvdal goals for a fourth consecutive title, it is going to be entertaining to see how the 2 girls match up in what guarantees to be an exhilarating showdown.
The British group additionally boasts potential podium contenders. Abbie Donnelly, who secured bronze final 12 months, might be seeking to construct on her breakthrough efficiency after incomes her first particular person medal on the championships.
Kate Axford and Abbie Donnelly (Gary Mitchell)
Kate Axford, who triumphed over Donnelly on the Euro Trials, is one other British athlete to observe as she makes her GB vest debut.
GB group: Kate Axford; Abbie Donnelly; Izzy Fry; Jess Gibbon; Cari Hughes; Poppy Tank
Senior males
After lacking final 12 months’s championships as a consequence of harm, Olympic 5000m gold medallist Jakob Ingebrigtsen is aiming for his third senior cross nation title and his seventh particular person gold medal total.
Ingebrigtsen might be joined on the Norwegian group by his older brother Filip, the 2018 European cross-country champion, together with final 12 months’s particular person silver medallist Magnus Tuv Myhre. Collectively, the trio might make a powerful bid for the group title.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Mark Shearman)
The competitors continues to be fierce as France’s Yann Schrub might be seeking to make his mark as soon as once more after claiming victory within the senior males’s race final 12 months.
After profitable the title for the primary time, he has since adopted it up with a silver medal on the European Championships in Rome this 12 months, ending behind Dominic Lobalu within the males’s 10,000m.
One other reigning European champion is Yeman Crippa who might be making his twelfth successive look on the European Cross – he gained under-20 gold in 2014 and 2015.
Crippa gained particular person and group gold within the half-marathon on the European Championships this 12 months earlier than competing within the marathon on the Olympic Video games.
Robin Hendrix, who completed third on the rostrum in Brussels and helped Belgium safe group gold, can even be one other contender. Isaac Kimeli, who was born in Kenya however moved to Belgium when he was 15, might be one other title to observe after profitable a silver medal on the 2018 Euro Cross and a bronze medal within the 2022 version.
Liverpool Cross Problem males’s leaders (Gary Mitchell)
Additionally within the combine are British athletes Hugo Milner and Tomer Tarragano. Milner, whose No.1 sport is triathlon, impressed final 12 months by staying in rivalry with Schrub all through the race, settling for fourth place in the long run.
Though Milner appeared in robust type on the Euro Trials earlier this month, he misplaced his title to Tarragano, who can even be making the journey to Turkey.
Absent from trials was Zak Mahamed. The under-23 silver medallist in 2023 was given a discretionary place on the group and might be hoping to enhance on his twenty seventh place final 12 months after a powerful season.
GB group: Scott Beattie; Ellis Cross; Rory Leonard; Zak Mahamed; Hugo Milner; Tomer Tarragano
Beneath-23 girls
With final 12 months’s winner, Megan Keith of Nice Britain, absent from this 12 months’s under-23 girls’s race, the competitors is broad open, leaving the title up for grabs.
Main the sphere is Finland’s Ilona Mononen, who claimed silver behind Keith in 2023. At simply 20 years outdated, Mononen has had a powerful 2024 season, setting a nationwide report of 9:23.28 within the 3000m steeplechase on the European Championships. She additionally made her Olympic debut in Paris, competing within the 3000m steeplechase heats.
The absence of Keith additionally presents a major alternative for Spain’s Angela Viciosa, who narrowly missed a podium end final 12 months with a fourth-place consequence. Viciosa might be wanting to safe her first main worldwide medal.
One other contender is Maria Forero, the 2022 under-20 champion, who earned silver within the European under-23 5000m race behind Keith final 12 months. Forero might be aiming to enhance on that efficiency and break into the highest spots as soon as once more.
The British group will characteristic some newcomers to the European scene. Amongst these returning to the occasion are Tia Wilson, who completed thirty fourth within the under-23 race final 12 months, and Phoebe Anderson, who positioned seventeenth within the under-20 race again in 2021.
GB group: Phoebe Anderson; Poppy Craig-McFeely; Megan Gadsby; Mia Waldmann; Kate Willis; Tia Wilson
Will Barnicoat (Getty)
Beneath-23 males
In earlier years, British athletes have dominated the under-23 males’s race, with Charles Hicks claiming the title in 2021 and 2022 and Will Barnicoat upgrading his 2022 under-20 gold to a under-23 victory final 12 months.
This time, Barnicoat won’t need to cope with final 12 months’s runner-up, France’s Valentin Bresc. Nonetheless, that doesn’t imply the win will come simply. Barnicoat might want to hold an in depth eye on his personal GB team-mate, David Stone, who defeated him on the Euro trials in Liverpool.
For Stone, the Euro Cross might be simply his second race of the 12 months, after lacking final 12 months’s championships as a consequence of an harm that required two surgical procedures. His final full aggressive season was in 2019 as a promising teenager.
With each Barnicoat and Stone in robust type, the group might be aiming to retain their group gold they gained final 12 months.
Nick Griggs (Getty)
However the Brits will face robust competitors. Eire’s Nick Griggs, who not too long ago set a parkrun “world report” of 13:44, is in glorious form and might be a risk. Barnicoat and Griggs have gone head-to-head earlier than, with Griggs in rivalry for under-20 gold in 2022, solely to stumble within the closing stretch as Barnicoat surged to victory.
Nick Griggs runs “parkrun world report” of 13:44
One other athlete to observe is Denmark’s Axel Vang Christensen, who claimed the under-20 title final 12 months and now strikes up an age class.
GB group: Will Barnicoat; Dafydd Jones; James Kingston; Peter Molloy; Brett Rushman; David Stone
Beneath-20 girls
Nice Britain’s Innes FitzGerald, the reigning European under-20 cross-country champion, produced a dominant 19-second victory in Brussels 12 months in the past and might be aiming to turn into the fourth girl to win back-to-back titles for the reason that under-20 race grew to become an official medal occasion in 1997.
Innes FitzGerald (Gary Mitchell)
The 18-year-old not too long ago secured a convincing win on the Euro trials, ending 31 seconds forward of Jess Bailey, who positioned eighth in Brussels and also will be a part of the British group.
The rostrum from final 12 months’s championships might be reunited in Antalya, with Denmark’s Sofia Thøgersen and France’s Jade Le Corre, who completed second and third respectively in 2023, set to problem FitzGerald as soon as once more.
Thøgersen, the 2022 European under-18 3000m champion, continues to be looking for her first under-20 continental title after incomes silver within the 1500m and bronze within the 5000m within the 2023 European Beneath-20 Championships.
She additionally missed out on a podium place on the World Beneath-20 Championships in Lima this 12 months, the place she completed simply behind FitzGerald in fifth, with FitzGerald fourth.
Sofia Thøgersen (centre) with Jess Bailey (proper) and Edibe Yagiz (Getty)
With FitzGerald and Bailey on the group, Nice Britain would be the group to beat, making them the favourites for the group title. In the event that they safe gold, it is going to be their record-extending 18th group title within the under-20 girls’s race.
GB group: Jess Bailey; Innes FitzGerald; Zoe Gilbody; Isobelle Jones; Eleanor Strevens; Lizzie Wellsted
Beneath-20 males
Final 12 months in Brussels, after an excellent double on the European Beneath-20 Championships, Dutch athlete Niels Laros discovered himself narrowly outsprinted by 2021 champion Axel Vang Christensen. With Christensen now transferring up an age group, Laros might be hoping to emerge because the favorite on this 12 months’s course.
Niels Laros (Getty)
Laros’ 2024 season has been distinctive, highlighted by a European under-20 1500m report of three:29.56, which earned him sixth place within the Olympic closing in Paris. He additionally set a world under-20 and European under-23 report 1000m report of two:14.37 in Hengelo.
One other to observe might be Sweden’s Karl Ottfalk, who was simply 17 when he completed fourth in Brussels final 12 months and has continued to smash his private bests throughout numerous distances this summer season. He additionally completed sixth within the 3000m closing on the World Beneath-20 Championships.
For Nice Britain’s Henry Dover, he might be seeking to enhance final 12 months’s sixth place and a group silver medal. He not too long ago gained the under-20 race in Liverpool and can now have his eyes set on the rostrum.
Nice Britain can even be seeking to reclaim the group title they held for 3 consecutive years from 2019 to 2022 after Eire gained it final 12 months.
Henry Dover (Gary Mitchell)
Czech’s Filip Toul and Serbia’s Aldin Catovic, who every took gold within the 1500m and 3000m respectively on the European Beneath-18 Championships this July, can even be among the many key challengers within the aggressive discipline.
GB group: Oliver Conway; George Couttie; Henry Dover; Quinn Miell-Ingram; William Rabjohns; Miles Waterworth
Combined relay
Within the temporary historical past of this occasion, Nice Britain is essentially the most profitable nation with three victories (Šamorín 2017, Lisbon 2019, Dublin 2021).
Nonetheless, final 12 months, France and the Netherlands each hunted down Nice Britain within the closing straight as France grabbed their first ever victory on this occasion.
The French group contains Antoine Senard, the one returning member of their gold medal-winning group, however their strongest runner primarily based on observe performances is Agathe Guillemot who completed ninth within the Olympic 1500m closing.
Josh Lay, who ran the opening leg in Brussels when Britain settled for bronze, will return alongside Maddie Deadman who gained the ladies’s trial.
GB group: Tyler Bilyard; Maddie Deadman; Joshua Lay; Elise Thorner
» Subscribe to AW journal right here, take a look at our new podcast right here or signal as much as our digital archive of again points from 1945 to the current day right here
The put up Euro Cross 2024: who, what and when information appeared first on AW.
