The countdown is very much on for the next major event of 2015 when the SPAR European Cross Country Championships take place in Hyères on Sunday December 13.
One nation which has already set out its intention of making an impression in France is Ukraine, whose head coach of endurance, Yuriy Andrushchenko, has said that the country will be sending six full teams to the championships.
Places will be up for grabs next weekend, November 13-14, at their national cross-country championships in Lutsk, where the first four athletes in each event will be chosen.
The SPAR European Cross Country Championships has quite a legacy in the Ukraine, created by the greatest male runner in the history of the event, the sensational Serhiy Lebid who has won the senior men’s race on nine occasions.
His first victory was in Ferrara in 1998 and his last in Albufeira in 2010. He also won silver once, bronze twice and team bronze once, with him consecutively taking gold between 2001 and 2005.
Now 40, it is impossible to rule him out of making the team again.
In April he was 10th in the London Marathon in 2:10:21 but more significantly for these championships, in September he won a 10km in Lviv in 28:15, a time which puts him third on the European Athletics rankings.
Korobtchitsy was the venue for the Belarus Cross Country Championships on Saturday, where Sergey Platonov (24:52) won over 8km and Nina Savina (21:07) triumphed at 6km to put down their claims ahead of Hyères.
In the shorter distances, Artyom Logish (12:01) was first at 4km and Olga Rulevich (10:12) at 3km.
A week after leading her team to success at the CrossCup relays, Belgium’s Louise Carton showed her impressive winter form again as she won over 6.2km in 21:12 at the Crosscup van de Provincie Antwerpen in Mol, the second leg of the 2015/2016 Joker + Crosscup.
Ahead of Hyères, it was an important race, too, for Great Britain’s Emelia Gorecka, who was 10th in 22:29 in her comeback after a stress fracture in her foot.
Gorecka, 21, is another of the great medallists in the history of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, having won the junior individual title twice (2011 and 2013) and the team gold on four occasions.
Carton’s teammate Isaac Kimeli, the 2013 junior silver medallist in Belgrade, also maintained his good form when he was second in Mol (28:33) behind Kenya’s Alex Kibet (27:41) over 9.2km.
After he was part of the winning team the week earlier, both Carton and him lead the CrossCup series, which augurs well if Hyères is in their plans.