by Alfonz JuckThe 2021 European Cross Country Championships were held today, in Dunblin-Fingal, Ireland. The largest cross country championships for a EA in years, the championships lived up to their hype and the streaming video for fans around the globe was, fantastic!
Here’s some of the updates thanks to our partners at EME News.
Jimmy Gressier, Jakub Ingebrigtsen, Aras Kaya, photo courtesy of European Athletics
Norway won both senior races, Britain topped medals
DUBLIN (IRL, Dec 12): Norway won both senior races for the first time in the history at the 27th edition of European CC Championships in Dublin-Fingal at the National Sports Campus. Another favorite to dominated was Italian Nadia Battocletti in the women U23 race. The 21-year-old Ingebrigtsen, reigning four-time junior champion, skipped the U23 category and won the senior title. Battocletti, the Italian, 21 years old as well, follows her two junior titles from 2018 and 2019 to win the U23-race. Norway’s Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal, 31, finally gets the gold medal in the women’s senior race, after four bronze in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, and silver in 2019. In USA living Briton Charles Hicks wins U23 men race, while only 17 years old Axel Vang Christensen from Denmark and British Megan Keith topped the U20 categories. Mixed relay gold (4x1500m) went for third time out of four to Great Britain. Great Britain dominated the medal standings with 5-1-2 ahead of Norway 2-2-1 and Italy 2-2-0, in total 15 countries have won a medal, including the first ever for Luxemburg and Israel. Next edition in 2022 will be in Torino, Italy.
Short reviews:
Jakub Ingebrigtsen takes EA Senior title on 12/12/21, photo courtesy of European Athletics
Senior men (10 km): Ingebrigtsen controlled the outcome in the last lap, from Kaya and Gressier, the latter slowly losing ground and potentially lose the bronze medal. In the end, the top-3 remained and Jakob Ingebrigtsen wins the race in 30:15, with Aras Kaya of Turkey in second (30:29) and Jimmy Gressier of France third (30:34). 10 years after their last senior team title, France overly dominates the field and earns gold thanks to 3rd, 4th, 6th and 8th place finishes (13 pts), ahead of Spain (30) and Norway (47).
Karoline Grovdal takes the Senior Women’s gold! 12/12/21, photo courtesy of European Athletics
Senior women (8 km): Grovdal who was in early stages not in the leading pack made her move over Bahta in last round and won by 10 seconds. Active from the start Bahta was rewarded with silver over fast finisher Reh. First Can and then also Klosterhalfen faded. Great Britain, led by Jessica Judd in 4th, wins the team gold medal (25 pts), ahead of Germany (29), and Sweden (34).
U23 men (8km): Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s Charles Hicks wins the U23 title in a dramatic and hard-fought race, in 24:29. Main rival through the Darragh McElhinney of Ireland gets silver (24:33) and surprise bronze for Luxemburg’s Ruben Querinjean (24:36). Team medal standings : Ireland wins historic gold, ahead of UK and France.
U23 women (6 km): Medalists from Lisbon 2019 in the U20 race finished in the same order here in U23. Battocletti ahead of Lukan and Machado. Frenchwoman Trapp faded in the latter stages of the race and finished 4th, beaten by Machado of Portugal for the bronze. Battocletti does the double as Italy wins gold (18 pts), with silver for France (25), and bronze for the UK (37).
U20 men (6 km): Denmark’s Axel Vang Christensen who belongs to U18 category won clearly ns in 17:52, silver for Norway’s Abdullahi Dahir Rabi 18:18 (cleared to run only later in the week) and bronze also for Denmark’s Joel Ibler Lilleso 18:21. Israel’s Adisu Guadia, who was for most of the race in the challenge for a silver medal, faded and finished in 11th place (18:34). Team medals were as follow : gold for Great Britain, silver for Ireland and bronze for Israel.
U20 women (4 km): Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s Megan Keith wins the junior race in 13:41 from Norway’s 1500 m track champion Ingeborg Ostgard in 13:43, who pipped Germany’s Emma Heckel on the line (13:46). Early leader Gréta Varga faded to 28th. Team standings wins for Germany, ahead of Spain and the United Kingdom.
Mixed relay (4×1.5 km): Mixed relay saw an early big lead from Hungary’s Lili Anna Tóth but she was catched in the last 100 metres by Ireland´s Maggean, who handed off in first in 4:24.55, and Switzerland. Quickly, handovers increased the gap between the leaders and the chaser, as Hungary was back in the chasing group. Ireland’s Luke McCann increased the gap between he and Switzerland’s Michael Curti, while Curti was himself being chased down by France’s Azeddine Habz, who eventually caught him. Leg 3 saw Ireland still being in the lead, but big changes behind as France, Switzerland and now Belgium all together fighting for second place, but Olympic 800 m finalist Alex Bell made the difference and gave Britain the lead for the last leg. Benjamin West increased that while France’s Alexis Miellet reduced a 5 second-gap to come back to Ireland and Belgium shoulders. Spain in 5th but too far behind at this point.
