The SPAR European Cross Country Championships are just over two weeks away and the fields for this year's edition in Antalya, Türkiye on 8 December are beginning to take shape.
And at least five European outdoor champions from Roma 2024 have expressed their interest in competing at the 30th anniversary edition of the championships which will be streamed live through the European Athletics website next month.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen
After missing last year’s championships due to injury, Olympic 5000m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen will target his third senior title and a seventh individual gold medal in total.
And Norway could challenge for the team title as well. Ingebrigtsen is joined on the Norwegian team by his older brother Filip, the 2018 European cross country champion, along with last year’s individual silver medallist Magnus Tuv Myhre.
Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal
Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal has been the dominant force at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in the 2020s and she is targeting a record-equalling fourth successive senior women’s title as well as a ninth successive individual medal.
If she wins, this will be her second major continental title of the year after winning the European half marathon title in Rome.
Nadia Battocletti
Nadia Battocletti also has her sights on making history at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships by becoming the first female athlete to win individual U20, U23 and senior titles.
The Italian won silver behind Grøvdal in Brussels last year before turning the tables on her Norwegian rival in the 5000m at the European Athletics Championships, the first half of her long distance double. And a shorter senior women’s race of 7.5km on a largely flat course could be to Battocletti’s advantage.
Yemaneberhan Crippa
Another reigning European champion with Antalya on their itinerary is Yemaneberhan Crippa who will be making his 12th successive appearance at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
Crippa won individual and team gold in the half marathon in Roma 2024 before competing in the marathon at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The senior men’s 7.5km will be a comparative sprint for the Italian who won U20 gold in 2014 and 2015.
Alexis Miellet
Alexis Miellet won gold as part of the mixed relay team in Brussels last year but the European 3000m steeplechase champion will be competing individually in the senior men's race in Antalya next month.
This will be Miellet's tenth appearance at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
Andreas Almgren
An intriguing entrant to the senior men's race is Andreas Almgren who is due to make his debut at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships at the age of 29.
The former 800m star has found his niche at the longer distances this year and has moved to fourth on the European all-time 10,000m list with 26:52.87 and second on the half marathon all-time list with a 59:23 debut.
Niels Laros
Will Niels Laros crown his glittering junior career by finally winning the U20 title in Antalya? Illness forced Laros to miss the 2022 event in Turin and the 19-year-old was surprisingly outsprinted in the last 70 metres last year by Denmark’s Axel Vang Christensen in Brussels.
Laros is coming off another superlative track season which was highlighted by a sixth-place finish in the 1500m final at the Olympic Games where he broke Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s European U20 1500m record with 3:29.54, an achievement which helped him to claim the men’s Rising Star award at the 2024 Golden Tracks.
Axel Vang Christensen
Axel Vang Christensen’s victory in the U20 race last year was one of the great comeback stories in more than one way. The Dane launched a brilliant kick to run down outstanding pre-race favourite Niels Laros to reclaim the title he won for the first time in 2021 before recording a DNF the following year.
Christensen steps up into the U23 ranks this year and he has already demonstrated good cross country form by winning the senior title at the Danish Cross Country Championships.
Innes FitzGerald
Innes FitzGerald strode to an assured victory in the U20 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships last year and the front-running Brit, who also finished an excellent fourth in the 3000m at the World Athletics U20 Championships, has her sights on defending her individual title in Antalya next month.
Incidentally, the last female athlete to win back-to-back U20 titles at this championships was Italy's Nadia Battocletti in 2018 and 2019.
Will Barnicoat
Great Britain’s Will Barnicoat will aim for his third successive individual title after winning U20 gold in 2022 before graduating to victory in the U23 race last year in Brussels.
Barnicoat won both races in a sprint finish so watch out for the Brit to strike if he is still in contention with the finish-line in sight.
Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen
The latest Nordic distance running prodigy to come to prominence is Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen who became the first non-African winner of a men’s distance running event in World Athletics U20 Championships history with gold in the 3000m in Lima in August.
Halvorsen hasn’t placed higher than 50th in his two previous appearances in the U20 race, although his prospects in 2022 were affected when he stopped to assist one of his teammates who fell ill in the race.
