Having tasted medal success at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Hyères last year, Germany's Amanal Petros and Alina Reh showed over the weekend that they are hungry for more glory.
It is now less than a month until the Euro Cross in Chia, Italy, and Pforzheim was the venue on Saturday for the German stars to shine at the Sparkassen-Cross.
The men's race was over 9km and Petros, still an under-23 runner, the category where he won bronze in Hyères, triumphed in 29:20 with Fabian Clarkson the leading senior, second in 29:47.
Last year, Petros finished just seven seconds behind Great Britain's gold medallist Jonny Davies at the Euro Cross and this performance will provide him with reams of confidence for another title challenge on 11December.
Teammate Fabienne Amrhein (23:50) won the women's race over 6.6km in Pforzheim while Reh, still only 19, was first in the under-20s 4.8km in 16:57, having left Hyères with individual bronze and team gold 11 months ago.
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Britain has a superb record of consistency at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships and Andy Vernon has been part of that medal success, with a silver and two bronzes.
Now, could 2016 be the time he completes the set with a gold after missing the past couple of cross country seasons with injury?
Vernon is definitely heading in the right direction after victory in Milton Keynes on Saturday in the first leg of the British Athletics Cross Challenge as he won in 28:42 ahead of Ben Connor (28:54) and Jonathan Taylor (29:01).
The senior bronze medallist in Belgrade in 2013 - he has under-23 bronze from 2007 and silver from 2008 - Vernon is counting down to Chia and told British Athletics: 'I am pleased to have won and it's great to be back in good form again.'
There was fine success, too, for Pippa Woolven, whose victory in the women's race saw her finish ahead of multiple Euro Cross medallists in Gemma Steel and Jess Judd.
Woolven won in 19:41 from Judd (19:46), Katrina Wootton (19:49) and Steel (19:49), the 2014 senior women's champion.
'It is nice to know that I have taken some scalps but I wasn't too aware during the race. I was just concentrating on what I was doing,' said Woolven.
Norway had a superb day at home as they won four gold medals as Kristiansand staged the Nordic Cross Country Championships on Saturday.
Their individual and team successes came in the men's 9km, with Orhan Gronnevig winning in 29:44 and the under-20 girls, where Christine Naess (17:16) was first over 4.5km.
Charlotta Fougberg (28:37) led Sweden to individual and team glory as she won the women's 7.5km race and there was double gold success for Denmark in the 6km under-20 race where Kristian Holm Jensen triumphed (20:20) as his country took the team title aswell.
The Italian qualification series for Chia moved to Trieste for the 42nd Carsolina Cross, where Marouan Razine (27:50) won at 10km and Sara Dossena (25:24) was first over 7km in the race to make the host nation's team.
Nevesvamos held the second race of the Hungarian Cross Country League, with wins for Laszlo Gregor (27:15) at 8km and Andrea Szederkenyi-Takacs (19:41) at 5km, while in Renner, at the Cross National de Pace Rennes Métropole, Ukraine's Daria Mykhailova (19:32) beat Africans Adanech Mekonnen (20:02) and Betty Murungi (20:10).
Ireland's Fionnuala McCormack, the double European gold medallist, is such a consistent performer at the championships and she warmed up for Chia by finishing fifth in Atapuerca on Sunday in 25:26 with Spain's Trihas Gebre (26:22) in seventh as Ethiopian Senbere Teferi (24:28) won the 8km at the first race in the IAAF Cross Country Permit series.
Gebre's teammates Antonio Abadia (25:34) and Ilias Fifa (25:35), the European 5000m champion, were the leading Europeans in the men's race, in seventh and eighth respectively, behind Bahrain's Aweke Ayalew (25:05).