World and Olympic medallist Nadia Battocletti successfully defended her title at the European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa while Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo won the senior men’s title in a thrilling finish ahead of world 10,000m champion Jimmy Gressier on Sunday (14).
A lead pack of three had emerged roughly half way through the women’s race with Battocletti running alongside multiple European cross-country champion Yasemin Can and Britain’s Megan Keith. With about 18 minutes on the clock, Battocletti started to break away from her last two remaining opponents.
The Italian went on to open up a significant gap to win comfortably in 24:52. Keith managed to break free from Can to take silver in 25:07 ahead of the Turk (25:13).
The men’s race was much closer. Gressier moved to the front after about eight minutes and started to push the pace alongside Ndikumwenayo, the bronze medallist last year. After 5km of running, Gressier and Ndikumwenayo had a nine-second lead over Dominic Lobalu.
The lead duo exchanged pole positions several times over the final kilometre and they started sprinting as they approached the final curve. Gressier slightly lost his footing on the last bend, allowing Ndikumwenayo to gain a slight edge as the Spaniard strode to victory in 22:05. Gressier took silver (22:08) and Lobalu came through for bronze (22:23).
Innes Fitzgerald, who earlier this year won the distance double at the European U20 Championships and broke the European U20 5000m record, won her third successive U20 women’s title. She dominated the race to win in 14:35, finishing 32 seconds ahead of her nearest challenger, Lucie Paturel of France.
The U20 men’s title also went to the continental U20 champion, but the race was much closer. Belgium’s Willem Renders won by one second from Spain’s Oscar Gaitan, 13:11 to 13:12.
In other races, Spain’s Maria Forero won the U23 women’s race while Ireland’s Nick Griggs took the U23 men’s title. Italy won the mixed relay ahead of Portugal and Great Britain & Northern Ireland.
