European Cross Country Championships Ones to Watch

Tomorrow the 2022 edition of the European Cross Country Championships will take place in La Mandria Park, just outside Turin in Italy’s Piemonte region. The fields look particular strong across all the age groups, with all 6 individual champions from Dublin back to defend their titles.

Here are some of the athletes to watch out for across the U23 and senior races.

La Mandria awaits

U23 women

The U23 women’s race could well be the highlight of the championships. The top 6 from last year’s race, which included multiple Olympians, are all still age-eligible, and five of them will toe the line in Turin!

They will be joined by the U20 race winner in Dublin, GBR’s Megan Keith, who finished second to Jess Warner-Judd (4^th senior last year) in the British senior trials; putting her among the contenders.

Home favourite, and defending champion Nadia Battocletti, is, however, the one to beat. She won the U20 titles in 2018 and 2019, and was 7^th in the Olympic 5000m in Tokyo. She finished 6^th and 2^nd in recent World Cross Country Tour Gold events in Atapuerca and Alcobendas, respectively.

Yasemin Can is the only female to have won more individual titles than Battocletti at this event, and if the Italian was to win, and the Turk to fail to do so, they would draw level on four titles each.

Mariana Machado won bronze last time around, and the Portuguese champion will look to add further to her medal haul after also winning bronze at U20 on home soil in 2019. She finished 10th in the World Cross Country Tour Gold event in Sevilla three weeks ago.

Manon Trapp was 4^th in Dublin and will be looking for her first individual medal at this level. The Frenchwoman, who has a black belt in Judo, finished 5^th in the 5000m at the European U23 Championships last year.

Ireland’s hopes lie with Sarah Healy, who’ll be looking to improve on her 5^th place last time out. Sarah was an emphatic winner of the Irish Championship/trials in Donegal three weeks ago, and will be chasing down her first European cross country medal.

Not to be ruled out is Battocletti’s Italian teammate, Anna Arnaudo, also a year older and stronger, who finished 6^th in Dublin and won silver over 10,000m at the European U23 Championships last summer. Arnaudo was a clear winner of the test event on this course in November.

Emma Heckel (Germany) won bronze in the U20 category in Dublin. She finished 38^th at the recent NCAA Div 1 Championship. Amina Maatoug (NED) and Yasmin Marghini (GBR) who finished just in front of her in Stillwater also race.

Klara Lukan, last year’s silver medallist, and Izzy Fry, 2022 World University Cross Country champions, are notable absentees. Lukan doesn’t appear to have raced since the spring, and Fry just missed out on making the British team, but is named as reserve.

The team title should, on paper, be a mighty battle between Italy and GBR. With only three to score, and with two major contenders in their ranks, Italy will be looking to retain their title on home ground.

For the Brits, Keith will be ably supported by Marghini, Mid-Ulster’s Grace Carson, Alex Millard and others. GBR won this time title 9 of the first 11 times it was held, but their last win was in 2018. GER, NED and ITA won in ‘18, ‘19 and ‘21 respectively.

Trapp led the France to silver in Dublin and will be joined by Flavie Renouard, the European U23 steeplechase champ, who finished 18^th last time. The three scoring members of the German team who won gold in the U20 race in Dublin also compete in the U23 race this time around.

Danielle Donegan, Laura  Mooney, Aoife Ó'Cuill, Jodie McCann and Niamh O'Mahoney join Healy in the Irish team. Healy, Donegan and McCann were the scoring members of the team that finished 5^th last year.

U23 Men

This race is also almost guaranteed to be a cracker. Charlie Hicks (GBR), Darragh McElhinney (IRL) and Ruben Querinjean (LUX), the individual medallists last time out, are all racing again, as are the 4^th, 6^th, 7^th, 8^th and 9^th placers from Dublin.

Hicks is the defending champion, and after his recent NCAA Division 1 title, he will start as favourite.

But Hicks has already been beaten by one Irishman this season (Brian Fay finished ahead of him at NCAA West regionals), and McElhinney will be hoping to make that two. McElhinney the Irish Senior champion, would so dearly love to cap off a fine year with an individual European title.

Don’t think, though, that these two are the only ones to watch. In a team stacked with talent, McElhinney isn’t even the only individual medal contender among the Irish contingent, so let’s start with them!

Efrem Gidey won bronze in the U20 race in Lisbon in 2019, and while his progress has been hampered by injury, he is coming off a fine summer during which he finished 6th in the 10,000m at the European Champs in Munich. He was 5^th in Donegal.

Keelan Kilrehill, 6^th in Dublin, and the 2^nd Irish scorer that day, is also a serious contender. He was only 6 seconds off a medal then, and will be looking to challenge his teammates for bragging rights.

Shay McEvoy, who finished 23rd at NCAAs three weeks ago, will be looking to spring a surprise. Jamie Battle (44^th last year) and Thomas McStay (who missed Dublin on medical grounds) complete the Irish team.

Other individual contenders include Querinjean who finished just three seconds behind McElhinney in Dublin. He finished 3^rd in the CrossCup race in Mol in October. Last year he won Luxemburg’s first Euro Cross medal; could he add their first title in Turin?

Magnus Tuv Myhre (NOR) was fourth in Dublin, and is the Norwegian Cross County Champion! He finished just a place behind Gidey in the 10,000m final in Munich this summer.

Antoine Senard (FRA), Aarón Las Heras (ESP) and Zak Mahamed (GBR), 7^th, 8^th and 9^th respectively in Dublin, are also all back. Las Heras was 26^th at NCAAs (Div I), Mahamed was the leading U23 at the British trails, and Senard, who didn’t race outdoors this season, was 6^th in Mol in October.

Pol Oriach (ESP) and Andrii Atamanium (UKR) move up to the U23 category after finishing 4^thand 5^th in the U20 race in Dublin last year.

Etson Barros, 2^nd in the 3000m steeplechase at the 2021 European U23 Championships, is a member of the Portuguese team.

It’s difficult, from this biased perspective, not to imagine the Irish team defending their team title, even on a mediocre day and even without the home advantage; they’re certainly the team the others will have their eyes on.

But the winning margin over the British team last year was only 3 points, and with Hicks, Mahamad and Rory Leonard who finished 16^th last year, all back in their team, it may not be the green whitewash everyone is expecting. 

Some sharp rises and falls will help sort champions from the also-rans

Senior women

The senior women’s race includes the top 7 from the 2021 race, along with a 4-time champion and other in-form athletes. The most interesting element here, however, will be the team competition; on paper a three-way battle.

Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal (NOR) is the defending champion, and will be looking to add to her already enviable Euro Cross record. She already has more individual medals than any other female at this event, having finished on the podium on 8 of her previous 9 appearances.

Grøvdal finished 8^th in the 5000m at the World Championships in Eugene this summer, but was a DNF over the same distance in Munich. She’s run some low-key road races in Norway in the run up to this event.

Yasemin Can (TUR) went into Dublin looking for her fifth consecutive title but, short of fitness, she finished just 14^th. The European 10,000m champion finished 8th in the World Cross Country tour in Atapuerca in Nov (behind Teferi and Battocletti) but won in Sevilla a week later.

Meraf Bahta (SWE), has also been a medallist on multiple occasions. She won bronze in 2014, and silver in 2017 and 2021, but missed Eugene and Munich due to injury. Bahta served a backdated one-year doping suspension in 2018/19 for failing to give whereabouts information three times within 12 months.

Alina Reh (GER) last year added an individual medal to the medals she’d previously won at U20 and U23 level. She finished 2^nd at the European 10,000m cup and 8^th over the same distance in Munich, but struggled after her DNF in the 5000m there. She did, however, win the German trial event recently.

Jess Warner-Judd (GBR) finished 4^th last year and will be looking to go at least one better to add to her medals at U20 (silver, 2014) and U23 (bronze, 2016). She won the British trials in Nov, after competing in the 10,000m at World Champs (where she also did the 5,000m), Commonwealth Games and Euro Champs this summer.

European 5000m champion Konstanze Klosterhalfen (GER) finished just two places behind her teammate in Dublin last year, and has yet to add a senior medal to her Euro Cross collection. She won the Valencia half marathon in October in a swift 1:05:41.

Selamawit Teferi (ISR) was 7^th last year. She finished top 8 in both the 5000m and 10,000m in Munich, and was 4^th (and first European) in the World Cross Country Tour Gold race in Atapuerca in November.

Sweden’s Sarah Lahti hasn’t featured since finishing 6^th in the U23 race way back in 2015 but with wins in Mol and Tilburg already this autumn she must surely be in contention for her first top 10 as a senior.

If Bhata, Mengsteab and Lahti are all on form, Sweden won’t be beaten in the team race. They, however, have little back up and had to go all the way back to 30^th place for their third scorer to take bronze last year.

And if any of the Swedish three falter, Germany and Great Britain, who both have more depth in their squads, will be ready to pounce.

In addition to Reh and Klosterhalfan, Germany has Hannah Klein, a 14.51 5000m runner, and 2:26:50 marathoner Miriam Dattke who won bronze in the U20 race in 2017 and finished 4^th in the Marathon in Munich in August.

Warner-Judd will be supported in the British team by Jess Gibbon and Abbie Donnelly who finished 11^th and 12^th last year, the Euro indoor 3000m champion Amy-Eloise Markovc (who finished 4^th U23 in 2017), and Cari Hughes and Poppy Tank, who’ve previously finished top 10 in the U20 and U23 categories, respectively.

With the withdrawal of Ciara Mageean, 2^nd at the Irish Championships in November, the Irish team certainly look weaker, but they now contain 6 athletes who’ve been on previous medal-winning teams at either U23 or senior level.

Roisin Flanagan and Aoibhe Richards were scoring members of the team which finished 4^th last year, but in a closely-matched team, any 3 of the 6 (Michelle Finn, Ann-Marie McGlynn, Mary Mulhare and Eilish Flanagan being members) could score this time around.

Senior men

Jakob Ingebrigtsen. There, that was easy.

Joking aside, Ingebrigtsen is the defending champion, undefeated in 5 appearances at Euro Cross, Olympic Champion, World Champion, European champion at 1500m and 5000m, and actually still eligible for the U23 race here. But if 2022 has thought us anything, it’s thought us that he is beatable.

As with the women’s race, 7 of the top 10 from Dublin return, though we also need to look elsewhere for Ingebrigtsen’s likely challengers.

Yemaneberhan Crippa (ITA) didn’t finish in Dublin last year, but won silver behind Kaya in 2019 to add to his double U20 titles from 2014 and 2015 and his U23 bronze in both 2016 and 2017. He is the European 10,000m champion.

Aras Kaya (TUR), the 2016 and 2019 champion, was second to Ingebrigtsen last time. He was 3^rd at the European 10,000m cup in May but only 16^th in Munich.

Belgium’s Michael Somers finished 5^th in Dublin, and was 2^nd in the Cross Cup race in Mol in late October.

Isaac Kimeli, also from Belgium, finished 9^th in Dublin, but won silver in Tilburg in 2018, and was the U23 champion back in 2016.

Yann Schrub (FRA) finished 6^th in Dublin and completed the French scoring team that day. He finished 3^rd to Crippa in the European 10,000m championships in Munich.

Nassim Hassaous (ESP) was 7^th last year and has finished top 8 in the four Spanish-based World Cross Country Tour gold events so far this season.

Brian Fay (IRL) was 10^th last year, and looks in good shape coming in this race after recently breaking the Irish indoor 5000m record. He finished 13th at the NCAA Div 1 Champs in Stillwater in November (25 places higher than last year!) and beat Hicks to take the NCAA North-West regional title.

Mohamed Katir (ESP) is an interesting entry. The European 5000m silver medallist and Olympic finalist has undoubtable speed, but is, as yet, unproven over the country. He finished 6th, and best of the Spaniards, at the World XC Tour even in Sevilla three weeks ago.

Emile Cairess (GBR) is another with top 10 potential. His 1:00:32 half marathon in October emphatic British trials win two weeks ago certainly suggest that he’s in the shape of his life. His best Euro Cross result is an 8^th place in the U23 race in 2018.

The race also features 2018 champion Filip Ingebrigtsen (NOR), who, like Crippa, failed to finish in Dublin.

The home team will also have European Steeplechase bronze medallist Osama Zoghlami among their ranks. And speaking of steeplechase, the European champion, Topi Raitanen (FIN) will also race.

Elzan Bibic (SRB) won silver at U23 level in 2019 and bronze in the 2018 U20 race. A win in Tilburg (World XC Tour silver) in November, suggests that while he may be ready to make a mark on the senior race this time around.

German Champion Samuel Fitwi Sibhatu won U23 silver in 2018 and finished 5^th senior in 2019. His teammate Davor Aaron Bienenfeld was 14^th in Stillwater.

French trio Jimmy Gressier, Hugo Hay and 8 Felix Bour who finished 3^rd, 4^th and 8^th respectively in Dublin, will not race this year, opening up the team competition somewhat. The Spanish team, who won silver last time, looks particularly strong, but a number of teams will be in the shake up for the minor medals.

In addition to Katir and Hassaous, the Spanish have Carlos Mayo - silver in 2014 (Jun), 2015 & 2016 (U23), 11^th in Dublin and 13^th in Eugene (10,000m); Abdessamad Oukhelfen - U23 bronze in 2019, and 12^th last year; Roberto Alaiz - 7^th in the senior race way back in 2015 and Sergio Paniagua - 2^nd recently in Alcobendas.

With potential top 10 finishers in the form of Somers and Kimeli, Belgium will look to their third scorer to improve on last year’s 5^th place. Robin Hendrix, 15^th back in 2018, looks like their best hope of making the podium.

The Irish team were just 4 points off a medal last year, and must fancy their chance at silverware this time around. Supporting Fay will be Hiko Tonosa Haso (13th last year), Cormac Dalton and Barry Keane who were just behind Fay in Stillwater, and Peter Lynch and Pierre Muchan, 3^rd and 4^th respectively at the recent Irish Championships.

The British team were only 6^th last year, but cannot be discounted. If Cairess gets anywhere near the medals, then the likes of Mahamed Mahamed (3^rd U20 in 2016), Ben Connor (top 10 2017 & 2019), Jack Rowe (18^th last year), infamous club runner Ellis Cross and Hugo Milner could help them to the podium.

Norway, meanwhile, have not two, but three Ingebrigtsens. Henrik won the U23 title in 2012, and finished 18^th in Dublin. The brothers will be backed up by Narve Nordas, 25^th last year; Jacob Boutera a steeplechase finalist in Munich, and Per Svela.

There will be blood!

A note on the U20 races and mixed relay

I didn’t preview the junior races last year, and I haven’t planned on this year. Some of them are still children, and I always feel they already have enough pressure from themselves, yet alone adding to that.

In the interest of managing expectations, it is, however, worth noting the strength and depth in both races, but especially in the U20 men’s race where all three medallists from 2021 start. There are a couple of Irish athletes with the potential to at least think about the podium, but if there isn’t medals, then it may not be because they’ve had an off day.

And there’s no way I’m going to wade through the runners and riders in the mixed relay. Anything could happen there!

Now, why don't you have a go?

Think you can do a better job at prediction the senior results? Why not have a go at #FantasyEuroCross. Just select who you think will win all the senior medals, and see how you get on.

You can enter here now.

Update: Bhata and Kaya are both late withdrawls.