Great Britain’s Megan Keith fulfilled her role as the pre-favourite by romping to a victory by the stunning margin of 1:23 to take the women’s U23 title at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Brussels on Sunday (10).
Keith took the lead almost immediately from the gun and by the end of the first short 1000m lap had a two-second lead.
As the race progressed and the women behind her tired as they navigated the energy-sapping mud, Keith just seems to get stronger.
At the end of the second lap having covered 2500m, Keith had a 21-second lead over the best of the rest, an advantage which grew to 47 seconds after the third lap at 4000m.
Behind Keith, a three-way battle had developed for what was likely to be the the other two medals if the Scot didn’t falter with Finland’s Ilona Mononen and her compatriot Nathalie Blomqvist as well as Spain’s Angela Viciosa having separated themselves from the rest of the field.
At the front though, Keith continued to fly across the mud and she passed the 5500m mark, 1:18 ahead of the chasing trio.
Still Keith didn’t ease up over the final lap and she crossed the line in 25:32 for a record margin of victory across all age groups, more than twice as much as the previous best.
"I was concious that it was going to be a long 7km in the mud. So I didn't want to overdo it at the start. I wasn't expecting to finish the first lap on a gap, I was hoping that I would have a pack with me. When I realized that I was alone I thought I am going to commit to this. I committed and it paid of today," said the happy Briton.
Behind her, Mononen pulled away on the last lap to secure the silver in 26;55 with Blomqvist nine seconds further back to make it two Finns on the podium.
However, despite Keith being Great Britain’s only counter in the top ten, Alexandra Millard and Eloise Walker’s 11th and 15h place was enough to secure their team gold medal by some margin with Germany second and Spain third.
By contrast, to the women’s U23 race, the men’s gold in this age category was not decided until the final few metres as Will Barnicoat managed to edge in front of his French rival Valentin Bresc and proved to have the stronger sprint.
Both mem were given the same time of 23:42 over the 7km course with Great Britain’s Mathew Stonier making up for his disaster in the European Athletics U23 Championships 1500m final this summer, when he was the favourite, by taking well-deserved bronze medal nine seconds further back.
Great Britain’s 2023 European U23 10,000m champion Rory Leonard led the field the first two laps through 2500m but looked out of sorts on the following circuit and soon dropped out.
However, a seven-man group went through 4000m in 13:28 with Bresc pushing the pace.
The main protagonists for the medals became clear during the next lap and at the bell Bresc and Barnicoat were running neck-and-neck with Stonier just behind them.
Stonier soon started to drift back and just focussed on his task of getting on the podium as the crowd were treated to an enthralling battle between the Bresc and Barnicoat all the way to the line.
"Last year I won the gold medal in the U20 race and people told me that it was a bit of a lucky win there. Today I confirmed that it wasn't," reflected Barnicoat.
"To be honest I didn't know what to expect today, because I didn't run that well in the trails [in Liverpool two weesk ago]. The course here suited me perfectly because I like the mud. In the end it was a tight finish. I just waited to attack in the last downhill and I was able to keep off the French athlete in the end," he added.
With two men on the podium it looked almost certain that Great Britain would take the team gold but there was a nail-biting time until James Kingston finished 21st before that prediction was confirmed.
Bresc got his second silver medal as France finished second while Norway got a surprise team bronze.
Phil Minshull for European Athletics