Niels Laros will stand on the start-line of the men’s U20 race at the 2024 SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Antalya’s Dokuma Park on Sunday (8), aiming to take one of the few continental age-group titles that have eluded him.
Twelve months ago in Brussels, after winning a memorable 1500m/5000m double that summer at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Jerusalem, the Dutch runner was outsprinted by the 2021 champion Axel Vang Christensen in the finishing straight.
This year, the Dane has moved up an age-group and will be vying for honours in the U23 race later in the afternoon, clearing the way for Laros to assume the mantle of prohibitive favourite on the 4814m course.
“I’m looking for redemption in Antalya. Yes. I am. I'm determined to go from second to first, and hopefully get two medals,” reflected Laros recently in Skopje, where he was crowned the 2024 European Athletics Rising Star of the Year.
Laros also promoted the possibility that he and his compatriots could put the Netherlands on the men’s U20 team podium for the first time ever.
The Dutch team also includes European U20 5000m list leader Juan Zijderlaan, who clocked 13:39.69 this year, more than 11 seconds quicker than any other U20 runner.
It has been a year of superlatives for Laros – who didn’t run a 5000m this year – which have included setting a European U20 1500m record of 3:29.56 when finishing a superb sixth in the Olympic final in Paris as well as a world U20 and European U23 1000m record of 2:14.37 on home soil in Hengelo.
And Laros has converted this track form onto the cross country already, beating the seniors over a distance of 10km at the famed International Warandecross in Tilburg to show he is in good form ahead of Antalya.
Who can beat Laros?
In what will be the biggest race of the day with 99 names submitted when the entry deadline closed last week, three other men who finished in the top 10 in Brussels last year return to the fray.
Karl Ottfalk was fourth in Brussels at the age of just 17 and the Swede has revised his personal bests across the board on the tracks this summer as well as finishing a hugely creditable sixth in the 3000m final at the World Athletics U20 Championships Lima.
Regardless of his result in Antalya, Ottfalk will also be eyeing success at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tampere in neighbouring Finland next summer as he will still be in the U20 ranks in 2025.
Great Britain’s Henry Dover finished sixth in Brussels and was part of the British trio that took the team silver medals. This time he is aiming for more than one trip to the podium.
He recently won the U20 race at the British trials for Antalya while Great Britain will be looking to regain the team title they won on three successive occasions between 2019 and 2022.
The big question is, with conditions in Antalya expected to be different than the undulating and energy-sapping course in Brussels, are there men with good track credentials who could challenge for a medal?
In addition to Zijderlaan, who was 19th in Brussels, Norway’s Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen certainly merits consideration.
Halvorsen impressively sprinted to victory to win the world U20 3000m title in Lima, Peru in the summer and leads the European U20 list over the distance with his time of 7:51.53. His lifetime best is slightly faster at 7:47.04, a time which eclipsed a certain Jakob Ingebrigtsen's Norwegian U20 record.
It all comes down to the kick 🔥
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 30, 2024
🇳🇴's Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen sprints to the 3000m gold in Lima.#WorldAthleticsU20 pic.twitter.com/bJwUr5aGKg
Halvorsen was back in a modest 50th place 12 months ago but leads a strong Norwegian team that is aiming to back on the podium for the first time since 2019 when Ingebrigtsen won his fourth successive U20 title.
Two other runners to watch, just not just this year but also in years to come, are Czechia's Filip Toul and Aldin Catovic from Serbia, the gold medallists in the 1500m and 3000m respectively at the European Athletics U18 Championships in Banska Bystrica in July.
In the team competition, despite the presence of national U20 cross country champion Jonas Stafford who finished 10th last year, Ireland may struggle to defend their title.
Great Britain, Norway and Spain look, on paper at least, the most likely contenders for U20 men’s team gold with the Netherlands also potentially featuring, especially with only three counters to score.
FitzGerald goes to Antalya in form
Great Britain’s reigning European U20 cross country champion Innes FitzGerald was an outstanding winner by 19 seconds in Brussels and the Briton will be bidding to become the fourth women to win back-to-back titles since U20 races came onto the SPAR European Cross Country Championships programme as an official medal event in 1997.
However, FitzGerald is not taking anything for granted although she showed good form recently when winning the British trails race in Liverpool by 31 seconds from the Brussels 2023 eighth-place finisher Jess Bailey, who will also be in the British team.
“Going to the Euro Cross is a lot of pressure but I’m really excited,” said FitzGerald, who just missed out on a medal when she finished fourth in the World Athletics U20 Championships 3000m this summer.
“I know I’ve got a big job on my hands, but I’ve just got to fight and keep fighting and hopefully I can come away with the win again,” she added.
A reunion of the Brussels podium will take place in Antalya with Denmark’s Sofia Thøgersen and France’s Jade Le Corre, the 2023 silver and bronze medallists respectively, back to challenge FitzGerald.
Thøgersen, the 2022 European U18 3000m champion, is still searching for a continental U20 title after a 1500m silver and 5000m bronze at last year’s European Athletics U20 Championships and will be motivated to finish her career in this age-group on a high note.
Thøgersen – whose younger brother William runs in the men’s U20 race – also finished only one place behind FitzGerald on the world stage in the 3000m final in Lima.
Le Corre might be less suited to the fast and flat conditions in Antalya than those she prospered on in Brussels but it should be noted that she did make significant revisions to her 1500m and 3000m personal bests during the summer.
Other top 10 finishers from Brussels to return are Sweden’s Else Sundqvist, Switzerland’s Shirin Kerber and Ireland’s Anna Gardiner, who were fifth, sixth and seventh respectively in 2023.
Another Norwegian distance prodigy on the rise
Also look out as well for Norway’s talented 17-year-old Wilma Bekkemoen Torbiörnsson.
Torbiörnsson won a bronze over 1500m at the European Athletics U18 Championships this summer but then improved dramatically the following month to clock Norwegian 1500m and 3000m U18 records of 4:09.80 and 9:03.17 and finish the summer third on both 2024 European U20 lists, in the latter case behind only FitzGerald and Thøgersen.
Following up these feats, last month she won the Nordic U20 cross country title in Vantaa, Finland by 27 seconds.
With FitzGerald and Bailey in their team and their history, Great Britain have to be the favourites for the team title, which would be a record-extending 18th team gold in the U20 women’s race.
However, behind Great Britain, it looks like an open contest for the other medals although the 2023 silver medallists Germany have also a strong team.
The German contingent includes Adia Budde the European U20 3000m steeplechase list leader with 9:49.11 who finished sixth at the World U20 championships in the summer and who is also the 2024 German U20 5000m champion.
It will be something of a surprise if hosts Türkiye get among the U20 medals but Edibe Yagiz, who was eighth in 2022 but struggled in the Brussels mud and slipped back to 26th last year, and Ali Tunc won the Balkan U20 cross country titles in Romania last month and could be inspired by the home crowd so a top-10 finish for them is a possibility.
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.