It has almost become de rigueur to put together back-to-back wins in the men’s U23 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in recent years and Great Britain’s Will Barnicoat will be hoping to continue the trend on Sunday (8).
France’s Jimmy Gressier put together three consecutive wins between 2017-19, post-pandemic Great Britain’s Charlie Hicks then triumphed in 2021 and 2022 while the latter’s compatriot Barnicoat was the first man home last year, just outsprinting France’s Valentin Bresc with both men being given the same time after 7km of racing.
Barnicoat has since improved his 5000m best to 13:19.66 in the summer, the second fastest time by a European U23 runner in 2024, but a few alarm bells rang as he was beaten in the British trials for Antalya in Liverpool last month by the unheralded David Stone, who will also be in the British team.
Among an impressive array of rivals facing Barnicoat, in addition to his teammate Stone, is the man who also showed an impressive turn of speed when winning in Brussels 12 months ago, Denmark’s 2021 and 2023 U20 winner Axel Vang Christensen.
Christensen will be accompanied by Joel Ibler Lillesø in the Danish team and with three to score, Denmark also have a chance of taking their first ever men’s team medal in any category at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
Lillesø, the 2021 European U20 5000m champion who won the Nordic senior cross country title last month, will also aspire to an individual medal to add to his 2021 U20 bronze, after finishing sixth behind Barnicoat last year.
Barnicoat, Lillesø and Christensen occupy second, fourth and sixth places on the 2024 European U23 5000m list, which might provide a good guide to who the main protagonists in Antalya could be.
The course for the U23 races is 6324m in distance and relatively flat, although the expected rain around the region in the coming days could make the going softer than originally anticipated.
Topping the 5000m list is Ireland’s Nick Griggs, the 2021 European U20 3000m gold medallist who finished second and third in these championships' U20 race in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Griggs, still only 19 as he doesn’t celebrate his birthday until later in December, improved his 1500m and 5000m personal bests to Irish U23 records of 3:35.04 and 13:13.07 respectively in the summer and having won U20 team gold with Ireland last year, has the pedigree to get Ireland's first ever men's individual win in any category at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
Austria’s Sebastian Frey finished a modest 58th in Piemonte-La Mandria Park two years ago and missed last year’s race in Brussels but might also have chance of a rare medal for his country – which has never won a European cross country title of any description – after a summer of impressive performances on the track which culminated in a national U23 5000m record of 13:20.65.
Another man who could enter medal consideration is Norway’s Abdullahi Dahir Rabi as the 2021 European cross country U20 silver medallist – finishing between the Danes Christensen and his training partner Lillesø on that occasion – who improved to 13:29.26 this year.
As far as the team medals are concerned, the last two years have seen Great Britain and France – who have European U23 3000m steeplechase list leader Luc Le Baron in their team – take gold and silver respectively.
It would be no surprise to see these two nations once again occupy two of the places on the podium but the remaining slot could be up for grabs.
Can Mononen find her Midas touch?
Ilona Mononen finished a distant second in Brussels 12 months ago behind Great Britain’s Megan Keith, who won by a staggering one minute and 23 seconds but with the Briton missing as she recovers from injury, the Finn might fancy her chances of gold in Antalya.
Mononen, the 2021 European U20 3000m champion, pressed her credentials to be consider the favourite with a strong run to win the Nordic senior title on home soil in Vantaa last month.
She also showed her appetite for rising to the big occasion on the track this summer with a Finnish 3000m steeplechase record of 9:23.28 when finishing sixth at the European Athletics Championships before improving further to 9:22.77 in her heat at the Olympic Games.
If Mononen was to win, it would be just the second gold for Finland in the history of the championships, with the only other occasion the Finnish national anthem having been played after Annimari Sandell won the 1995 senior women's title at the age of 18.
However, the Spanish pair of Angela Viciosa and 2022 U20 gold medallist Maria Forero might well offer a stern challenge on the type of course which traditionally seems to favour southern European runners.
Viciosa, the daughter of 1998 European 5000m champion Issac Viciosa, finished fourth in Brussels last year while Forero was only two places behind her.
Forero notably improved her own Spanish U23 5000m record to 15:19.69 at the European Athletics Championships and is the fastest woman over that distance out of the 73 runners entered.
Other top ten finishers from 2023 to return are the Netherlands’ Emmy van den Berg and Bulgaria’s Yasna Petrova.
On paper, the battle for team gold could be between last year’s gold and bronze medallists Great Britain – who have won on 12 of the 17 occasions since U23 races came onto the championship programme in 2006 – and Spain.
However, Türkiye have an outside chance of a team medal having last got on the podium in this category back in 2017.
The host nation can boast of recently-minted Balkan U23 champion Urkus Isik in their team as well as Pelinsu Şahin, who just missed out on a medal at the World University Games cross country earlier this year when finishing fourth in the short race.
Phil Minshull for European Athletics
The championships will be streamed in their entirety through the European Athletics website from 11:00 local time (09:00 CET/08:00 GMT) and will be accompanied by expert English-language commentary from two-time World Cross Country Championships silver medallist Tim Hutchings and 2011 World Athletics Championships 1500m silver medallist Hannah England.
There will also be extensive race day coverage of the championships on the European Athletics website and social media channels.
For those visiting Antalya, there are no ticket sales for this event. It is free to enter the venue and watch the competitions and medal ceremonies.