If the volume of support is a key factor in propelling an athlete onto further success, then newly crowned SPAR European Cross Country Championships senior men’s champion Yann Schrub is in for a memorable 12 months.
The French athlete attracted a vociferous group of fans to Brussels on Sunday, where he gave them a day to cherish.
The 27-year-old ran away from a classy field to win the senior men’s race, becoming the first Frenchman to win the title in the event’s 29-year history.
And with the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships followed shortly afterwards by a home Olympic Games in Paris both taking place this summer, it is a year of huge importance and rich potential for an athlete seemingly reaching his peak at just the right time.
Schrub, the leading European finisher in the World Athletics Championships Budapest23 10,000m last summer, soaked up the glory of his trailblazing victory in Belgium, grabbing a French flag as victory came within sight at the start of the finishing straight and even allowing himself a moment to take it all in as the competition fell away.
“When I found ourselves at the top of the [last] hill, there is no more mud and I am 50 metres ahead, it is happiness, I managed to savour that moment, it was important,” he told France’s leading sports daily L’Equipe.
“We [as athletes] train so hard that when such rare moments happen, we like to savour them. There were 45 people who came to see me. Like in Munich (where he won 10,000m bronze at the 2022 European Athletics Championships), like in Budapest, like everywhere.
“It's a title that I want to celebrate with everyone, with my two coaches in particular (Dominique Kraemer and Anthony Notebaert),” he added.
Any athlete who has competed in a home Olympic Games will understand the unique pressure and emotions of such an occasion but if ever an athlete was ready for the spotlight, it is Schrub, whose outgoing personality is now being complimented by his performances.
Ever since the 2018 SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg, where he placed 18th in the men’s U23 race, Schrub has seemingly been on an upward trajectory.
He won the 5000m silver medal at the 2019 Summer Universiade in Naples, Italy and then, post-pandemic, Schrub placed sixth at the 2021 European Cross Country Championships in Dublin, laying the foundations for a breakthrough bronze in Munich the next summer.
Then in Budapest last year, he proved his growing comfort on the big stage, placing a creditable ninth in the 10,000m final, heading the European challenge.
“With my two coaches Anthony and Dominique, we fine-tuned the program so that I am well today but also for the rest of the season because it is also the (Olympic) Games that are important,” the ebullient Schrub told other French media in the aftermath of his victory.
“It's a transitional dream that shouldn't last too long, I need to be in good shape in Paris for the Games, but it's a dream I couldn't do better today. I did almost a race perfect, I'm also happy to have enjoyed this race, at least for one kilometre, it's incredible when you cross the line, and you know that you are European champion.”
Schrub has now joined a small but illustrious group of French male endurance athletes who have won global or continental cross country titles.
Among the famous names which will resonate with any athletics buff are: 1912 Olympic 5000m silver medallist Jean Bouin who won at the International Cross Country Championships (the forerunner to the current World Athletics Cross Country Championship) three successive times between 1911-13; Joseph Guillemot, the 1920 Antwerp Olympics 10,000m gold and 5000m silver medallist who won the 1922 International Cross Country Championships title; while 1956 Olympic marathon champion Alain Mimoun was no less than a four-time individual winner at the International Cross Country Championships between 1949 and 1956.
However, 58 years had elapsed without a Frenchman winning an individual senior cross country gold medal at a major championship – although France won the 1978 world cross team title and has since won numerous European team titles – between Jean Fayde winning the international title in 1965 and Schrub crossing the line to get continental honours in the Belgian capital on Sunday.
🎙 Interview de Yann Schrub, champion d'Europe de Cross-country : « Il faut rester humble » 🥇#Brussels2023
— FFAthlétisme (@FFAthletisme) December 12, 2023
It is no surprise that then that there will be growing expectation on the shoulders of the new French hero as Paris 2024 nears.
And an enormous challenge awaits him, particular from the east African contingent in the men’s 10,000m.
But the French athlete’s natural joie de vivre – notably advertised by his now famous post-race ‘chicken hat’ – is sure to be rapturously embraced by home crowd.
And if Schrub can feed off the support like he did in Brussels, who know he could be driven to even greater deeds still in Rome and Paris.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics