The Brit recovers from an early race crash to secure silver, while Battocletti capped off an impressive season to retain his senior title in Lagoa.
Nadia Batocleti and Megan Keith made it 1-2 in a dramatic senior women’s race at Round 31 of the European Cross Country Championships (December 14).
Less than 10 seconds had passed when Keith, who arrived in Portugal on the back of three fourth-place finishes at the World Cross Country Tour, hit the ground after the runner ahead of him fell.
Kate is not one to give up easily, but quickly made her way to the front of the field, joining Italy’s Nadia Battocletti and Turkey’s Yasemin Can.
The opinion was not short when it came to the make-up of the course. it started and ended on grass, but the rest was like the old caterpillar, but its hybrid nature worked to Kate’s advantage.
For a while it looked as if the Briton might even topple Battocletti to take the gold medal, but the Italian, gunning for her second consecutive individual Eurocross gold medal, was too strong in the closing stages.
The Italian, who last year became the first woman in history to win gold at the U20, U23 and senior levels at the championships, clocked 24:52 around the 7,290m course.
Keith crossed the line in 25:07, finishing six seconds ahead of Kahn. Belgium won the team gold medal ahead of Great Britain.
“I was pretty nervous on the start line because we were seeing the under-20s as they battled it out and there were bodies going down,” Keith said. “I knew people were going to be aggressive. I thought I timed it perfectly, but someone got off in front of me and I had no choice but to crash on top of him. I was very lucky to only walk away with a couple of scratches and not get crushed.
“It wasn’t in my game plan to start with a 10m handicap, so I ran around like a mad lady trying to find my way to where I wanted to be. I recovered after one lap so it felt like a four-lap race at the end.”
Despite being pushed by both Keith and Ken, victory was never in doubt for Battocletti. The Italian has now won eight titles (both individual and team) in Eurocross.
“I’m so happy because this is my sixth individual title here at Euro Cross,” Battocletti told AW. “It was such a surprise to me because I started winning these titles back in 2018 as a junior. My journey was really crazy because you have so many strong athletes in every age category. Whoever wins here is the champion of all disciplines.
“I thought 2024 was good as a season considering I got a silver medal at the Olympics, but 2025 was amazing. I can’t find words to describe the feeling. I’ve been so consistent and now I’m about to graduate at the end of this month (Batocleti is finishing her degree in Civil Engineering and Architecture. University of Trento).
The senior men’s race was just as dramatic as the women’s race, with every podium spot coming down to the wire.
On top of the many challenges the athletes faced around the course, including obstacles, sharp turns and changing surfaces, they also had to deal with a steep hill in the final 30 meters to the finish line.
Whether it was brutal enough to be labeled a “heartbreak hill” is another matter, but it certainly played its part in the senior men’s event.
For most of the race it was clear that gold and silver would most likely go to Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo and France’s Jimmy Grecier, who surged forward after a few laps and never looked back.
As the pair entered the final, Ndikumwenayo, who won bronze at last year’s Eurocross, struck hard to edge the world 10,000m champion by just three seconds, with the pair running 22:05 and 22:08 respectively.
The final podium place was even tighter between Britain’s Scott Beattie and Switzerland’s Dominique Lobalu. The bronze medal came down to a photo shoot after the pair both clocked the same time of 22:23. Spain’s strength in depth saw them secure the team gold medal.
Nick Griggs from Antalya turned his silver medal into gold in Lagoa with a dominant victory in the under-23 race.
The Irishman finished second to Will Barnicoat in last year’s season, but this time round he was sure to win, beating France’s Aurelien Raja by 12 seconds.
Griggs looked great on the winding 5790m and clocked 17:47. Barniocat, who arrived in Lagoa as a two-time champion, missed the Liverpool Cross Challenge through injury and spent most of November cross training ahead of Euro Cross. He finished 14th with Matt Ramsden, who won at Liverpool, the first Briton to finish sixth at home.
In the men’s under-23 race, Ireland secured two gold medals and the nation also won the team title.
Spain’s Maria Forero was the favorite to win the title in the women’s race and she delivered, beating Finland’s Ilona Mononen by five seconds. France won the team gold medal.
Innes Fitzgerald bid farewell to the Under-20 category in some style with another fine display at Euro Cross.
The Briton had already impressed at both the Cardiff and Liverpool Cross Challenges last month, beating her opponent by 50 and 59 seconds respectively.
She was once again unchallenged in Eurocross to win by an astonishing 32 seconds in Lagoa, the biggest victory in a women’s under-20 race in the history of the championships.
Fitzgerald, now a three-time European under-20 Euro Cross champion, will compete in the under-23 category in Belgrade next year.
“Coming to the finish line, I was like, ‘That’s tough,'” he said. Going up the hill three times didn’t seem like much, but it made it a bit more difficult. Yesterday people were talking about wearing road shoes, but by the third lap it was starting to crumble and it was quite sandy. It required much more effort.
“It was so hard, I thought I was having a bad day. It took me a little longer to get the front I wanted. I was careful not to rip the line. I naturally prefer grass, but the nature of cross country means you have to work with what you’ve got.”
Belgium’s Willem Randers won the men’s under-20 race by just one second ahead of Spain’s Oscar Gaitan.
Since European Athletics introduced the mixed relay at Euro Cross back in Å amorÃn 2017, it has always produced some of the most dramatic moments of the championships.
It was the case once again in Lagoa as Isaac Nader tried his way to secure a silver medal for the host nation.
Portugal were 14 seconds adrift of the leaders and in sixth place when Nader took over, but the world 1500m champion showed why he won the title in Tokyo with a commanding performance.
He overtook Great Britain’s Callum Elson on the final lap but could not do enough to chase down defending champions Italy.
Italy beat Portugal by four seconds, while Great Britain edged out France by just one second to claim the final podium spot.
As the race was 4x1500m, this meant that most of the athletes competing were middle-distance runners, and the British quartet consisted of Elson, Jack Higgins, Holly Dixon and Ava Lloyd.
