<h2>SPAR European Cross Country Championships</h2>
The most important cross country event on the European calendar attracts the best distance running talents from across the continent in the U20, U23 and senior categories for both genders with a mixed relay the latest addition to the programme.
It is usually held on the second Sunday of December.&nbsp;
The first edition of the Championships was held in Alnwick, Great Britain in 1994. The most recent edition was held in Fingal-Dublin, Ireland last December while the next SPAR European Cross Country Championships will be in Piemonte-La Mandria, just outside Turin, on 11 December 2022.&nbsp;

As long as he can remember, this is how it&rsquo;s been: the longer the distance, the better Axel Vang Christensen gets.&nbsp;&nbsp;
That was again how it was at last Sunday&rsquo;s SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Fingal-Dublin, with each lap of the U20 men&rsquo;s 6000m race carrying the 17-year-old Dane clear of his competitors.&nbsp;&nbsp;
By the finish he was in splendid isolation, 25 seconds ahead of his nearest rival in a field of exceptional strength. That makes Christensen a young athlete of exceptional quality &ndash; one seemingly built for endurance, both willing and able to handle the rigours of high mileage.&nbsp;&nbsp;
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His role model, unsurprisingly, is Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who sauntered to the senior men&rsquo;s title last Sunday. In recent years Christensen has been eyeing up the marks achieved by the Norwegian as he climbed the ladder to senior success. In January, Christensen set a Danish U18 3000m record of 7:59.30 indoors, one second quicker than Ingebrigtsen ran at the same age.&nbsp;&nbsp;
He&rsquo;d love to follow Ingebrigtsen&rsquo;s path, even if he&rsquo;s aware how special an athlete the Olympic 1500m champion is and that success will almost certainly lie over the longer distances.&nbsp;&nbsp;
"He&rsquo;s probably the biggest talent in the sport ever,&rdquo; said Christensen. &ldquo;But to aim high is the way to go if I want to go to the very top."
Growing up in Hillerod, just north of Copenhagen, football was Christensen&rsquo;s first love, and he started running solely to boost his fitness on the pitch. His father took him to a local race at the age of 10 and Christensen enjoyed that competitive environment. It wasn&rsquo;t long before he won an under-age national title and at the age of 11 he went &ldquo;all in on running&rdquo;.&nbsp;&nbsp;
His gift for it was clear, but between the ages of 11 and 13 he suffered several injuries. His coach, Nicolaj Raagaard Sorensen, decided to try a new approach in training, lowering the intensity but raising the volume.&nbsp;
"We stuck with that until now," says Christensen. &ldquo;And it worked.&rdquo;&nbsp;
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As he stayed healthy his times progressed rapidly, and Christensen became one of Denmark&rsquo;s most exciting young talents, one who&rsquo;s never been afraid of high-volume training.&nbsp;&nbsp;
"When I was 14, I did 120 kilometres per week and at 15, on a summer camp, I had one week with more than 150km," he says.&nbsp;
"These days 160km a week is pretty normal and in training camp I can even go up to 180 per week."
He does two to three workouts each week; sessions like 4-6km of hill repetitions, 3 x 10 minutes at threshold effort or track reps at a harder intensity. While Christensen does many runs with training partners, his workouts are typically completed with just his coach for company on the bike.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been doing it for so long we barely even talk,&rdquo; laughs Christensen. &ldquo;We know what each other thinks.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Their high-volume approach means he has to rise early to fit in his training, with his alarm clock going off at 5:15am between Monday and Thursday and Christensen out running before 6am, covering 8-15km. His harder efforts are done in the evening.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I just find I&rsquo;m really used to it,&rdquo; he says of the early-morning routine. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been doing it for four years now. It&rsquo;s a part of my life.&rdquo;&nbsp;
In recent years he has set 37 Danish age-group records at everything from 1500m to 10,000m to the 3000m steeplechase. Earlier this year, he targeted the latter event at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tallinn, Estonia.&nbsp;&nbsp;
His original plan was to focus on the European U18 Championships but after that was cancelled he chose to step up against older rivals. Christensen very nearly beat them all, running away from the field and building a substantial lead before being run down, and eventually outkicked, by Spain&rsquo;s Pol Oriach. He set a Danish U20 record of 8:42.75 to win silver and break the nine minute-barrier for the first time in his career.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Still only 16 at the time, that defeat taught him more than victory ever could.&nbsp;
"Initially I was really disappointed,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I remember just being motivated for a few days and I felt like, &lsquo;How could I deserve this when I put so much effort into training?&rsquo; But a few days later I accepted it and life goes on, as always. I grew a lot with that defeat, as an athlete and person. I understood the world is not always fair &ndash; that&rsquo;s just how it goes.&rdquo;&nbsp;
The championships also taught him the importance of psychology, and Christensen has done a lot of &ldquo;mental training&rdquo; since then to develop a stronger mindset in races.&nbsp;&nbsp;
But his path to gold last weekend was not a smooth one.&nbsp;
Christensen struggled with illness after an altitude camp in the autumn and had a bad reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine. An issue with his shoes also led to a sore heel which cost him more time, while surgery to remove his tonsils meant he had only two weeks of proper training in the legs ahead of the Nordic Cross Country Championships in Tullinge, Sweden, in early November.&nbsp;&nbsp;
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In the U20 race there, he took on two of the big contenders he&rsquo;d battle for gold in Fingal-Dublin: Norway&rsquo;s Abdullahi Dahir Rabi and Denmark&rsquo;s Joel Ibler Lilleso. Christensen proved no match for Rabi, coming home 14 seconds behind in second, but he knew with five weeks more training to come, things could be different when they met on the European stage.&nbsp;&nbsp;
&ldquo;Somehow I found a really nice rhythm (in training),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That made me go from bad shape to really, really good shape in a short period of time.&rdquo;&nbsp;
At the Nordic Championships he &ldquo;underestimated the mud&rdquo; and raced with 9mm spikes, which left him struggling for traction. The lesson was learned: he packed 15mm spikes for his trip to Ireland.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I had a lot more grip in Dublin and that had a major influence,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Going into the race, Christensen felt confident but &ldquo;knew it&rsquo;d be a hard task to beat&rdquo; Rabi. The one thing he didn&rsquo;t want was a repeat of what happened on the track so Christensen went &ldquo;hard from the gun.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Midway through the second lap it was clear no one could live with him, and he built a nine-second advantage at the halfway point, which grew to 14 seconds after three laps and 25 seconds by the finish. &ldquo;It was an awesome feeling,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know where I got that energy.&rdquo;&nbsp;
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His father and his coach &ndash; who work together to guide his career &ndash; were both in Dublin and after Christensen completed a post-race drugs test, he tracked them down for an emotional reunion on the course.&nbsp;&nbsp;
As he looks to 2022, the European Athletics Championships in Munich are high on his agenda. Christensen will have to run below 8:30 for the 3000m steeplechase to qualify but he figures that is doable. He remains undecided which event will take his focus in the future.&nbsp;&nbsp;
"I really like steeplechase, the technical part is just awesome,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I think I can go pretty fast in the steeple as well as the 5K and 10K. One day I can go to the road, but I&rsquo;d like to stay on the track as long as possible."
He&rsquo;ll finish school next summer and after that he plans to pursue a degree in civil engineering at the University of Birmingham in the UK. Born in 2004, Christensen will still be eligible for the U20 category for another two years so as good as that first European gold medal was, it is highly unlikely to be his last.&nbsp;&nbsp;
With his class, his commitment, he could go a very long way.&nbsp;
Cathal Dennehy for European Athletics&nbsp;

Gold in Dublin could be just the beginning for Scandinavia’s latest distance running prodigy Christensen

Jakob Ingebrigtsen might have been the youngest competitor in the senior men&rsquo;s race by two years but the scintillating Norwegian glided to gold at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Fingal-Dublin on Sunday (12).
Ingebrigtsen would have been eligible for the U23 race - and he remains so next year as well when the championships take place in Turin - but the Olympic 1500m champion stepped up both in age-group and in distance at the Sport Ireland Campus to win his sixth European senior title at the age of 21.
The distance of 10km might be slightly beyond Ingebrigtsen&rsquo;s speciality but he never looked under considerable pressure or out of his comfort zone against what was arguably the finest ever men&rsquo;s field assembled at the European Cross Country Championships. The line-up included the three individual medallists from 2019 as well as Jimmy Gressier who was also making his senior debut.
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Reigning two-time champion Aras Kaya from Turkey set an unrelenting pace on a muddy and rutted course and by the end of the second large lap of 1500 metres, the Kenyan-born reigning champion had already whittled the group down to four contenders. Ingebrigtsen and Gressier both kept pace with Kaya along with Yemaneberhan Crippa from Italy.
Kaya&rsquo;s attritional tactics would eventually pay dividends. After looking anxiously over his shoulder, Crippa suddenly came to a halt before grasping his stomach on the penultimate lap and then Gressier started to cede ground on the leading pair just before the bell chimed to signal the last lap.
But Ingebrigtsen showed no discernible signs of fatigue and he ominously loomed onto Kaya&rsquo;s shoulder before nonchalantly moving past the reigning champion with just under one kilometre to go.
The gap opened up gradually at first but Ingebrigtsen&rsquo;s raking stride took him to a clear-cut victory in the end. He broke the tape in front of a sizable and knowledgeable crowd in 30:15 to win by just under 100 metres from Kaya (30:29) and Gressier (30:34) and add senior gold to his four U20 titles between 2016 and 2019.
&ldquo;It felt really good but I have to admit 10K is not the best distance for me. At the same time we do a lot of similar training to these sorts of races in our normal weeks, but you are always thinking about the worst case scenario.&nbsp;
&ldquo;There is a lot of mud here, it is a tough race, a long race with a lot of good competitors this year,&rdquo; said Ingebrigtsen who also acknowledged the role of the crowd just over four months after landing Olympic gold in a near-deserted stadium in Tokyo.
&ldquo;The crowd was crazy and they really helped us, so I&acute;m really happy there were lots of spectators here today!&rdquo;
Kaya had to relinquish his title to Ingebrigtsen but the Turk was happy to make the podium again after a rather nondescript season. He has now made the podium in four of the last five editions of the European Cross Country Championships with silver this year accompanying his bronze from 2018 and his gold medals from 2016 and 2019.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I knew I had to lead from the front - that was my plan - both Jakob, Yemen and Jimmy are very strong so I need to come out strong and neutralise the field. Someone had to get the pace going. Although I came out here as the reigning champion overall, I am very happy with my result,&rdquo; he said graciously.
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Gressier came home safe in the bronze medal and he led home a French contingent who packed excellently. With Hugo Hay fourth and Yann Schrub sixth, the French team came away with the senior men&rsquo;s team title.
 Incredibly this was Gressier and Hay's sixth successive team gold medal at the European Cross Country Championships after winning U20 team gold in 2015 and 2016 as well as three team and individual U23 titles between 2017 and 2019.
Reflecting on his individual performance, Gressier said: &ldquo;It is difficult to beat Jakob these days, he is truly the best in the world - even in cross country he is undefeatable - so I can only focus on improving, so I stand a chance of beating him at some point. In the meantime, it&rsquo;s a real pleasure to race next to a true champion like him.&rdquo;
Behind France with 13 points, Spain took the team silver medal with 30 points while Norway were third with 47 points, packing just ahead of hosts Ireland who finished with 51 points and whose charge was led by Brian Fay in tenth.

Unstoppable Ingebrigtsen glides to gold on his senior debut in Dublin

The last five editions of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships have seen Norway&rsquo;s Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal on the podium each time, but after four bronze medals and a silver, the latter two years ago in Lisbon, she finally struck gold in Fingal-Dublin on Sunday.
Into the bargain it was a winning return to the city where she won the U20 title 12 years ago in 2009, the last time Ireland staged these championships, and she made it a Norwegian double victory after Jakob Ingebrigtsen was victorious in the senior men&rsquo;s race a little earlier in the afternoon.
The race started with Sweden&rsquo;s Meraf Bahta and Germany&rsquo;s Konstanze Klosterhalfen going straight to the fronbt and pushing the pace but they were soon joined by Turkey&rsquo;s four-time defending champion Yasemin Can, Bahta&rsquo;s compatriot and 2019 bronze medallist Samwarit Mengsteab, Israel&rsquo;s Selamawit Teferi, as well as briefly France&acute;s Mekdes Woldu.
Woldu soon lost contact with the leading group, but the five forged ahead and were together two kilometres into the race with Grovdal and Great Britain&rsquo;s Jessica Judd 20 metres further back.
However, slowly over the next kilometre two critical things happen: firstly Grovdal got up with the leading group while, by contrast, Can &ndash; who was eventually to finish 14th &ndash; started to drift back, as did Mengsteab and Teferi albeit less dramatically.
By the fifth kilometre, with Klosterhalfen pushing the pace during the middle stages of the race, Grovdal was running comfortably on the shoulder of the German with Bahta also striding smoothly over the increasingly muddy circuit after six previous races.
About 40 metres behind the leading trio, Judd and Germany&rsquo;s Alina Reh, with the latter having run a well-paced race up to this stage in the race, were lying in fourth and fifth place.
However, just before the sixth kilometre, the wheels suddenly came off for Klosterhalfen and the race for gold over the final two kilometres was down to a head-to-head battle between the Scandinavian pair of Bahta and Grovdal, the Swede herself a bronze medallist in 2014 and silver medallist in 2017.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
At last! ???? After five successive silver and bronze medals, Karoline Gr&oslash;vdal ???????? (<a href="https://twitter.com/KarolineBGrvdal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KarolineBGrvdal</a>) is crowned senior women's European cross country champion! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FingalDublin2021?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FingalDublin2021</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/Norsk_Friidrett?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Norsk_Friidrett</a>) <a href="https://t.co/oUZeviydVV">pic.twitter.com/oUZeviydVV</a>
&mdash; European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href="https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1470040836180226056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2021</a></blockquote>
The entertaining duel continued over much of the final lap although Bahta was starting to show signs of tiredness as her head bobbed from side-to-side and with 500 metres remaining Grovdal obviously sensed this was the moment to make a decisive surge and quickly pulled away from her last remaining rival.
Grovdal crossed the line after 8025m of running in 26:34, 10 seconds in front of the flagging Bahta with the fast-finishing Alina Reh motoring away from Judd in the final kilometre to take an unexpected bronze medal in 26:53.
The delighted but exhausted Norwegian immediately just sat down in the mud beyond the finishing line, getting her breath back and savouring her big moment after having come so close to gold so many times since 2015.
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"I have won so many bronze and silver medals at European level - both on the track and in cross country - so for me to take the gold today means a lot. I am so happy for having been able to do that. It was not only until the last lap that I realised that I would be able to take the win," reflected Grovdal.
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"I think the start wasn't easy, as I was a little behind, which made me feel a bit concerned, but then I slowly caught up with the girls leading the pack, that's also the reason I still had some energy left towards the end. I felt very relieved coming down the home stretch," she added.&nbsp;
Reh, the 2017 U23 champion, was more demonstratively overcome with emotion, tears streaming from her face after struggling with injuries for much of the year which saw her miss all of 2021, and her chance to go to the Olympics, until she returned to the roads in September.
Further down the field, Ireland's 2011 and 2012 champion Fionnaula McCormack finished ninth on her record 17th appearance at the Championships, her performance coming just a week after she ran 2:23:58 in the Valencia Marathon to go third on the 2021 European list for the classic distance.
Even though Judd just missed out on an individual medal, she got some compensation as she led Great Britain to the team gold medals, retaining the place at the top of the podium they achieved in Lisbon with Jennifer Nesbit and Jessica Gibbon in tenth and 11th place to complete their scoring trio in Fingal-Dublin and tally 25 points.
Great Britain also made it seven time in the last ten editions that they have won this title.
Reh added a team silver medal to her individual bronze, with Klosterhalfen finishing fifth: although there was an agonising wait for German cross country fans of almost two minutes after their leading pair crossed the line, counting down the places to see whether they could snatch the title from Great Britain, before Domenika Mayer finished 21st to confirm that they would finish in second place with 29 points for their best ever result in this category.
Like Reh, Bahta also got a second medal on Sunday as Sweden won their first ever senior women's team medal with 38 points, helped by Mengsteab hanging on to finish sixth.

After so many near misses, Grovdal finally gets her senior gold in Dublin

Great Britain retained their mixed relay title at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships and, with the greatest respect to the three other members of their winning quartet who certainly contributed significantly, most of the plaudits have to go to their third leg runner Alex Bell.
Bell, an Olympic Games 800m finallist this summer, started her leg 12 seconds down on the lead and handed over to the British anchor runner Ben West four seconds in front of her nearest rivals.
West, making his British debut at any level, then attacked hard over the first half of the final leg over approximately 1600m to dent the hopes that anybody else might have had of wrestling the crown from Britain's grasp and despite visibly tiring over the final 300 metres, he had enough strength to maintain the lead all the way to the line.
The race started with Hungary&rsquo;s Lili Anna Toth flying into the front from the gun and the 2017 SPAR European Cross Country Championships U20 silver medallist had a 20-metre lead halfway through the first lap.
However, in the final third of the race, the chasing pack of seven teams started to close and with 200 metres remaining Ireland&rsquo;s Ciara Mageean and Switzerland&rsquo;s Lore Hoffmann overtook the tiring Toth.
Luke McCann took over from Mageean and then ran a superb circuit of the Sport Ireland Campus course, looking wonderfully relaxed for much of his stint and clocking 4:15 for the 1500m lap, to give Ireland a three-second lead at the halfway point in the race with Switzerland and France following him home after two legs.
However, the third lap belonged to Bell. The Great Britain team captain took over in sixth place, after solid but unspectacular opening legs from Hannah Nuttall and Luke Duffy, and then started almost immedaitely to gain ground on the women in front of her.
Ireland&rsquo;s Siofra Cleirigh Buttner at one point had a five-second advantage at the front of the race approximately halfway round the third leg but the fourth-place finisher in the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships 800m clearly started too fast and unravelled badly in the final few hundred metres.
Bell &ndash; the one surviving member of Great Britain&rsquo;s victorious quartet in 2019 when she also ran the third leg &ndash; and Belgium&rsquo;s Vanessa Scaunet overhauled Cleirigh Buttner 300 metres from the changeover before the Briton, in turn, started to move away from Scaunet and she handed over to Ben West with a four-second advantage.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Hannah Nuttall ↪ Luke Duffy ↪ Alex Bell ↪ Ben West ???? For the third time in four stagings, <a href="https://twitter.com/BritAthletics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BritAthletics</a> capture the mixed relay title at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FingalDublin2021?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FingalDublin2021</a> <a href="https://t.co/0gTsyvgZFN">pic.twitter.com/0gTsyvgZFN</a>
&mdash; European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href="https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1470013716464873483?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2021</a></blockquote>
It was left to West to bring Great Britain home and he did so with aplomb despite his lack of international experience, crossing the line in 18:01 to huge applause from a sizable contingent of British fans.
"I've not had a stage and heard an audience like that in so long, it was unbelievable," said Bell. West added: "I was so nervous when Alex got in the lead, I thought 'I&acute;ve got to hold it now,' so I took off and I was knackered by 400 metres in, I was like 'Oh Dear, they are going to come back for me' but I'm happy to take the win."
Behind West in the finishing straight, there was a tremendous three way battle between France, Belgium and Ireland for the other medals. France's Alexis Meillet had the better sprint finish &ndash; as befits a man with a 3:34.23 1500m best &ndash; to clinch the silver medal for Les Bleus in 18:05 with Belgium&rsquo;s Stijn Baeten finishing third one second behind and Ireland&rsquo;s Andrew Coscoran just missing out on the medals in fourth despite being given the same time of 18:06 as Belgium.

Great Britain retain mixed relay title thanks to third leg heroics from Bell

Nadia Battocletti won her first European cross country title in a sprint finish at U20 level in 2018 and the rising Italian star landed the U23 title in similar fashion on Sunday (12) at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Fingal-Dublin.
After winning back-to-back U20 titles in 2018 and 2019, Battocletti continued her seamless transition through the ranks with her third successive European cross country title and her second U23 title of the year after winning 5000m gold at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Tallinn.
Battocletti only hit the front in the very late stages and when she did, she moved emphatically away from a classy field which included the silver and bronze medallists from the U20 race two years ago in Slovenia&rsquo;s Klara Lukan and Mariana Machado from Portugal.
After vying for the lead with her long-time rival Lukan, Battocletti moved to the front with real intent with more than 19 minutes on the clock and the 21-year-old engineering student manufactured a commanding winning margin, crossing the line in 20:32 to win by four seconds from Lukan.
In a repeat of the podium from Lisbon two years ago, Machado came through for the bronze medal in 20:36 with France&rsquo;s Manon Trapp - who was responsible for setting most of the pace in the middle of the race - dropping back to fourth in 20:42. The big Irish hope Sarah Healy had to settle for fifth in 20:48.&nbsp;
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&ldquo;I don't know how I do this. Well, I guess the enthusiasm from the Tokyo Olympics played a part in it. It was a really tough race, with so many strong girls, like Klara, Mariana and Sarah - I am very happy,&rdquo; said Battocletti, whose excellent season also included a seventh-place finish at the Olympic Games over 5000m.
&ldquo;My team told me I could probably win easily, but in my head I know that when I step on the course, I don't know the shape of the other girls, I don't know anything about them, so I need to come out here and do my race. It is not true that when you are the favourite, the reality is different, and I always try to run fast to get a win - it is not easy though,&rdquo; added Battocletti who also led Italy to the team title from.
Italy&rsquo;s three counter accrued 18 points to lift the trophy from France (25) and Great Britain &amp; NI (37).
The men&rsquo;s race was a seesawing affair with the lead changing multiple times in the last lap of the 8km contest at the Sport Ireland Campus.
Great Britain&rsquo;s Charles Hicks, who was his country&rsquo;s leading counter in the U20 two years ago, made an early breakaway which was gradually foiled by the highly vaunted Irish prospect Darragh McElhinney who received fulsome support from a sizeable crowd.&nbsp;&nbsp;
But as the two favourites sized each other up, they were joined by a surprise interloper from Luxembourg in Ruben Querinjean who was only fifth and nine seconds down on Hicks and McElhinney with one lap to go.
All three athletes had a stint in the lead on the decisive last lap but Hicks kept something in reserve for the long and slightly uphill home straight, forging away for the individual title in 24:29 ahead of McElhinney (24:33) and Querinjean (24:36) who won Luxembourg&rsquo;s first ever medal at the European Cross Country Championships.
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&ldquo;I tried out so many surges and breaks but [Darragh] couldn just not be broken. The crowd was just cheering him on so much, it was good to see although it was putting me under a lot of pain,&rdquo; recalled Hicks whose journey from the United States where he studies in Stanford was fully justified.
And by finishing with an individual silver, McElhinney also led a jubilant Ireland to a brilliant team gold medal with 21 points ahead of Great Britain &amp; NI (24) and France (36).
&ldquo;I'm absolutely over the moon. I'm happy with second, I'm more than content but the fact that the team pulled it out of the bag, I&acute;m buzzing,&rdquo; said McElhinney who was ably backed up by Keelan Kilrehill in sixth and Micheal Power in 13th.
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Battocletti wins her third successive European cross country title in Fingal-Dublin

Axel Vang Christensen continued his outstanding winter form by holding off three reigning European U20 champions on the track and taking the first title of the day at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Fingal-Dublin, on Sunday.
The Dane &ndash; just the second individual men&rsquo;s winner after Carsten Jorgensen won the senior men&rsquo;s title in 1997 &ndash; darted to the front just after the first 1500m lap in the men's U20 race and then continually forged ahead to eventually win by the huge margin of 25 seconds.
At the halfway point in the race, the tall 17-year-old European U20 3000m steeplechase silver medallist in Tallinn this summer had managed to put nine seconds between himself and Norway&rsquo;s Abdullahi Dahir Rabi, who had won the Nordic title in front of Christensen a month ago.
Christensen then just kept gliding over the mud at the Sport Ireland Campus over the second half of the race and gradually extending his lead although Rabi was able to stay running strongly in second place and had a significant margin over the other medal contenders going into the last lap.
Over the final lap of 1500m, Christensen continued to negotiate his way comfortably around the testing course and over the last few &nbsp;hundred metres it was clear from the expression on Rabi&rsquo;s face that he had given up hope of Christensen suffering a late meltdown and he visibly eased up.
Christensen eventually crossed the line in 17:53 after 6011m of running, with Rabi a distant second in 18:18.&nbsp; Behind the leading pair, Denmark&rsquo;s European U20 5000m winner Joel Ibler Lilleso ran a tactically astute race with a strong third lap to move up several places from the halfway point.
Just after the bell, Lileso overtook Israel&rsquo;s flagging Adisu Guadia &ndash; who had tried to stay with Rabi once Christensen started to move away at the front but would eventually drift back to finish 11th &ndash; and ultimately made the bronze medal his own.
Another Tallinn champion, Spanish steeplechaser Pol Oriach, actually ran the last lap faster than anyone else and sped past a host of runners on the laps lap before trying to charge down Lileso over the 300 metres but left his effort just a bit too late and had to settle for fourth place.
<blockquote>
"Obviously, Abdullahi, my team mate Joel and Pol &ndash; the guy who beat me in the steeplechase this summer [at the European Athletics U20 Championships] &ndash; were my main opponents, so I felt I had to get my revenge here today. Having competed with them before was definitely an advantage because I felt I had something to prove. I wanted to get that gold medal really bad," commented Christensen.
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Good packing by Great Britain - with their three scorers finishing in ninth, tenth and 15th to give them a total of 34 &ndash; meant that they retained the team title they won two years ago in Lisbon.
However, it was very close.
An inspired Irish team, looking for their first ever U20 gold medal at these championships, finished just one point in arrears of Great Britain, helped in no small part by Adel Laddjel rising to the occasion and finishing an unexpected sixth.
An even bigger surprise came in the shape of the Israeli team who placed three men in the top 20 and totalled 37 points, just three behind Britain and two behind Ireland, to take their first ever medal of any description at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
Keith grits her teeth and gets gold
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Yet another U20 gold medal for Great Britain. ???? Megan Keith kicks for victory in the women's U20 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships! ????<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FingalDublin2021?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FingalDublin2021</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/BritAthletics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BritAthletics</a>) <a href="https://t.co/MkCyB0JXIv">pic.twitter.com/MkCyB0JXIv</a>
&mdash; European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) <a href="https://twitter.com/EuroAthletics/status/1469984313475321859?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2021</a></blockquote>
Great Britain&rsquo;s Megan Keith was to the fore throughout the women&rsquo;s U20 race but it took her until the final 500 metres of the 3984m race before she managed to put daylight between herself and her rivals for the title.
In contrast to the earlier men&rsquo;s U20 race, there was a large pack of more than 20 runner togethers at the halfway point.
Keith and Hungary&rsquo;s highly-fancied Greta Varga, who took the silver medal in the 3000m steeplechase in Tallinn, were the main protagonists pushing the pace on the second lap but behind them there was a host of other prominent names whose track form suggested they could be medal contenders.
Also showing well at this stage was Germany&rsquo;s Emma Heckel, who has started studying at the University of New Mexico following her third place in the Tallinn 5000m, and it was Heckel who moved up alongside Keith as they heard the bell with one lap to go.
The pair then had a fine duel over the next kilometre, with a little bit of daylight emerging between the leading pair and the women behind them, until the final 500 metres when Keith surged again and the German started to look very tired and started to slip back.
Keith, the British trials winner for Fingal-Dublin, now knew that she had the gold medal in her grasp and was determined to not let it go and sprinted for home to the raucous delight of the many British supporters among the 10,000 course-side spectators.
The Briton crossed the line 13:41 as behind her Norway&rsquo;s Ingeborg Ostgard finished with a tremendous sprint as befits her status as the 1500m winner in Tallinn this summer and flew past Heckel in the last 50 metres to take the silver medal three seconds behind Keith.
Heckel came home third, a further two seconds further back but her efforts were rewarded when Germany shortly afterwards were confirmed as the unexpected team gold medallists, with their three scorers in the top 10, regaining a title they last won in this age group in 2015 with a mere 15 points, the lowest winning total since 2008.
Spain took the team silver medals despite the Tallinn 5000m champion Carla Dominguez, many pundit&rsquo;s pick as a medal contender especially after recent results on home soil, finishing a disappointing 54th.
Great Britain, U20 team winners on 16 of the last 20 occasions prior to Fingal-Dublin, had to settle for third place on this occasion despite Keith&rsquo;s individual victory.

Christensen and Keith take unexpected U20 titles in Fingal-Dublin

Ciara Mageean has collected European bronze medals both indoors and outdoors in her long and esteemed career over 1500m but a medal of an even brighter hue potentially beckons on Sunday (12) at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
Mageean spearheads the Irish mixed relay team and as she told the media at the pre-event press conference which was held at the Sport Ireland Campus on Saturday, the quartet is certainly not lacking in ambition on the eve of the championships.
"We haven't spoken specifically about what position we are going to finish but believe me: we go into every race competing for the gold. We are all aware we have possibly one of our strongest relay teams on paper to date so we are looking forward to getting out there and running some good, fast loops. It's going to be extra special with the Irish crowd carrying us around and hopefully we will give them something to cheer about,&rdquo; said Mageean.
The Irish team will face strong opposition particularly from reigning champions Great Britain &amp; NI and Spain who have monopolised this race since it was added to the programme in 2017 but the hosts are still rightly considered to be in the reckoning.&nbsp;
However, Mageean believes this is an Irish team that can deliver medals all across the programme - not just in the mixed relay. For posterity, their haul of four medals in Lisbon two years ago was Ireland&rsquo;s best campaign to date and one which could quite possibly be improved upon tomorrow.
"Racing in front of a home crowd is something really special and I believe this team is going to bring home medals. There are plenty of fantastic athletes out there to race but I think we have a really good chance. I want to see the tricolour raised. We will give everything,&rdquo; said Mageean.&nbsp;
<img src="https://directus.european-athletics.com/assets/25560891-ccb9-4e4f-b920-8ccbf18defd1" alt="SPAR European Cross Country Championships 2021 - Press Conference" width="5472" height="3648" />
Mageean has a long and varied affiliation with the European Cross Country Championships dating back to the late 2000s when she competed in the U20 race. Since then, Mageen has become a mainstay of the senior women&rsquo;s team with the mixed relay posing a new and different challenge tomorrow.&nbsp;
But regardless of which are-group or distance she is competing in, the European Cross Country Championships has always been, and will always be, a very significant race on the calendar for her.
&ldquo;I really cut my teeth in cross country. I'm pretty sure the European Cross in Brussels in 2008 was my first Irish vest. It wasn't until I stepped on the track that I probably realised my true potential was there and I'm not quite as strong at cross country but it doesn't take away from the fact that every single year I try and compete at my very best.
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"I've had a strong history of being on Irish teams. I was on the Irish team in 2009 when I was a junior that raced in Santry - I can barely even remember it now! - but the event has played such an integral role in my development. As a middle distance runner it builds you up for a strong base in the winter heading towards the track season in the summer. It's something I will continue to do until I hang up my spikes,&rdquo; said Mageean.
</blockquote>
On her personal highlights, Mageean has many to choose from but she identifies her team silver medal in Lisbon two years ago as one of her fondest memories of competing at the European Cross Country Championships so far.
"Getting on the podium with the senior women in Lisbon was truly special. I try my best to get an individual medal but I know whenever I'm out there, I'm competing for the team and every single position counts so to have the senior women getting among the medals was fantastic.
"But even the editions I haven't competed in, whenever I was sitting at home sulking because I was injured or didn't make the team, have still been fantastic. I've enjoyed the Euro Crosses I've raced in and ones I've observed. It's a truly special event and I can't wait for the Irish to host it again tomorrow,&rdquo; she said.
<img src="https://directus.european-athletics.com/assets/ce5fa99d-a3cf-4865-9a1a-35d76dc42704" alt="SPAR European Cross Country Championships 2021 - Press Conference" width="6720" height="4480" />
The senior Irish men&rsquo;s team includes Ryan Forsyth who came so close to an individual medal in the U23 race in 2018 when he finished fourth in a race won by France&rsquo;s Jimmy Gressier.
On his individual and team chances he said: &ldquo;We expect to be competitive in any race we enter. We have a great squad and we expect to be competitive for a team medal.&nbsp;Individually I always hope to be competitive in any race and I look forward to many more experiences at European level and hopefully beyond that as well. I hope I have a successful race tomorrow.&rdquo;
Up to 7000 spectators are expected to travel to the Sport Ireland Campus on the outskirts of Dublin tomorrow morning and Forsyth, who spends much of the year based in the United States, is still counting on a big cohort of family and friends to spur him on.
&ldquo;My family is coming down from County Down. This is so special - we don&rsquo;t see it as pressure, we see it as an opportunity and something to be super proud of. We can&rsquo;t be more thrilled and we hope to give the fans a show.&rdquo;

Ciara Mageean: “Believe me: we go into every race competing for gold”

Jakob Ingebrigtsen might be the youngest competitor in the senior men&rsquo;s race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships but the 21-year-old will command the immediate respect of his rivals as he makes his debut in the senior 10km in Fingal-Dublin.
It hardly needs to be said that Ingebrigtsen has excelled across all age groups and across all surfaces. At 17, Ingebrigtsen became the first athlete to win a 1500/5000m double at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin and at 20, Jakob followed suit indoors by becoming the first man to win the 1500m and 3000m at the same European Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun this March. A few months later he became Olympic champion in the 1500m, winning gold in a European record of 3:28.32.
His cross country record is equally formidable. Jakob won four successive U20 titles at the European Cross Country Championships from 2016 and 2019 - the latter by a winning margin of 38 seconds which is all the more impressive given Jakob only broke away on the last lap in Lisbon.
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Jakob is still eligible for the U23 ranks both this year and next year but the Olympic 1500m champion and multiple European record-holder has chosen to eschew the intermediate ranks to be a part of what might be the strongest ever senior men&rsquo;s line-up in European Cross Country Championships history.
And as well as being a prime contender for individual honours, the Norwegian team should be in the reckoning for their first ever team title, especially with only three counters to score. Jakob will be joined on the start-line by his older brother Filip, his predecessor as European 1500m champion, who glided across the mud in Tilburg three years ago to land a surprise and stylish victory.
Interestingly though, Jakob doesn&rsquo;t have the fastest 10km lifetime best in the race - or even in the Norwegian team for that matter. That accolade goes to Zerei Kbrom who took ownership of the national record from Jakob in October with a 27:39 clocking in Valencia.
Kbrom is the one of the older competitors in the race at 35 but this race represents his major championships debut for Norway. Born in Eritrea, Kbrom sought asylum in Norway in 2012 but he only gained clearance to compete for his adopted nation in March 2020.
Also graduating into the senior ranks is France&rsquo;s Jimmy Gressier who dominated the U23 category at the European Cross Country Championships by winning three successive individual and team titles between 2017 and 2019 on a variety of courses and with differing tactics on each of the three occasions.
While most of the leading contenders haven&rsquo;t raced since the track season, Gressier showed great form on the French domestic circuit with victories at the short course French Cross Country Championships and at the Cross d&rsquo;Allonnes where he became the first French winner since 2007. And if Gressier does reach the finish line first, don&rsquo;t be surprised to see another of his trademark celebrations.
<img src="https://directus.european-athletics.com/assets/a4443995-7f5e-483e-80b7-6f8a32da6013" alt="SPAR European Cross Country Championships" width="5568" height="3712" />
The line-up includes five of the top six finishers from Lisbon two years ago, including all three medallists: Turkey&rsquo;s Aras Kaya, Yemaneberhan Crippa from Italy and Switzerland&rsquo;s Julian Wanders.
Out of the triumvirate, Crippa is perhaps the best placed to return to the podium this year. Kaya is seeking a third individual title but his last race resulted in a lowly 21st-place finish in the Lisbon Half Marathon in 64:37 while Wanders, who holds the European records at 10km and the half marathon is still searching for his best form after a season which has been punctuated by a bout of pneumonia.
The line-up also includes two-time Olympic 5000m finalist Andrew Butchart who has placed fourth, third and fourth in 2016, 2017 and 2019. However, he was beaten in the trial race in Liverpool two weeks ago by Jack Rowe.
The Spaniards are fielding a highly experienced team which includes Adel Mechaal and Ayad Lamdassem who finished fifth in the 1500m and marathon respectively at the Tokyo Olympics and are both former medallists at this championships. But their best individual medal hopes could be provided by two of the younger members of the team in Carlos Mayo and Abdessemad Oukhelfen, the latter winning a top quality race in Atapuerca a fortnight ago ahead of most of his teammates.
<img src="https://directus.european-athletics.com/assets/e498b4a5-ffba-4d20-bfa6-3b5a2ce30a3f" alt="SPAR European Cross Country Championships Chia 2016" width="3000" height="1997" />
Belgium&rsquo;s Isaac Kimeli will be searching for his second major European medal of the season after winning silver behind Jakob Ingebrigtsen over 3000m in Torun while other potential medal contenders include Mike Foppen from the Netherlands, Switzerland&rsquo;s Jonas Raess and Germany&rsquo;s Samuel Fitwi.
Great Britain &amp; NI are the defending team champs although their reign will be challenged by the aforementioned Norwegians and Spaniards along with France with Gressier to the fore.
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The SPAR European Cross Country Championships will be streamed live in its entirety on the European Athletics website from 9.30am local time (GMT).
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Ingebrigtsens and Gressier to headline an all-star men’s race in Dublin

SPAR European Cross Country Championships

Men's senior race | Fingal-Dublin 2021

Women's senior race | Fingal-Dublin 2021

Men's U23 race | Fingal-Dublin 2021

Women's U23 race | Fingal-Dublin 2021

Men's U20 race | Fingal-Dublin 2021

Women's U20 race | Fingal-Dublin 2021

Mixed relay | Fingal-Dublin 2021

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Battocletti wins her third successive European cross country title in Fingal-Dublin

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