Spain's men's team of Bikila Atletismo retained the European Champion Clubs Cup Cross Country in Albufeira, Portugal, on Sunday while the overall combination of excellent finishes from Russia's women gave Sport Club Luch Moscow victory on a dramatic afternoon.
Morocco’s Mohamed Moustaiou, running for the French club of Alès Cévennes Athlétisme, took the individual senior men’s title by the smallest of margins as he crossed the line in 29:13.
It was only one second ahead of Spain’s Ayad Lamdassem who had already finished second on this course back in 2010 when the SPAR Cross Country Championships were staged in Albufeira.
Daniel da Silva was third in 29:16.
There was some relief for Lamdassem as Spanish club Bikila Atetismo once again retained the title with all four Spanish runners placing in the top 10.
Most eyes were focussed on his fellow countrymen Alemayuh Bezabeh, the 2013 European cross country champion from Belgrade, who did not perform the way he would have liked finishing outside the podium in sixth.
“I am very happy with my second place, it was a very tactical race and hopefully I can be the number one next year,' said Lamdassem.
“This was good preparation for the marathon, I will run at the European Athletics Championships and I hope to get a medal this time after having finished fourth and sixth in the past.”
On the women’s side it was a strong group finish by Russia’s Sport Club Luch Moscow that saw them keep their title. Natalya Gorchakova, Lyudmila Lebedeva, Natalya Leontyeva and Natalya Vlasova finished in third, fourth, fifth and sixth.
However they were not able to keep up with Ethiopian Hiwot Ayalew, running for Turkish club œsküdar Belediye SK. She completed the 6.2 km course in 21:15 ahead of Italy’s Nadia Ejjafini second in 21:26.
In the under-20 boy’s, Türkiye’s Kocaeli Darica club completely dominated the race, with the four Turkish athletes taking the first four positions, Saffet Elkatmis running away with victory in 19:05.
For the girls, again it was Sport Club Luch Moscow who took the team title with 20 points, but this time it was close as Swedish club Hí¤sselby SK put up quite a fight with 28 points led by Sarah Lahti who won the 3.8 km race in 13:05.
In the end it all came down to the fourth placed runner on each team and Hí¤sselby’s Klara Henriksson finshed 21st, which cost them a lot of points compared to Luch Moscow’s Kseniya Makhneva position of 10th.