The crown slips away in Portugal as Great Britain failed to win more medals than their Eurocross rivals for the first time since 2003.
The European Cross Country Championships have traditionally provided a wealth of options for British distance runners. From John Brown’s men’s victory on the mud in Charleroi in 1996 to a remarkable top-six finish in the women’s under-20 race in Brussels in 2008, British athletes have won incredible medals.
Until this year’s event in Lagoa, Portugal, you had to go back to Edinburgh in 2003 to find a Euro cross where another nation had actually won more medals than Britain. On that occasion it was Russia, but even then Great Britain topped the medal table with their three golds to Russia’s two.
Since then, Britain has proven time and time again that it is the strongest country in Europe. Indeed, only twice has Britain finished second in the medals table, behind Turkey in 2016 and Norway in 2018, but on both occasions Britain won more medals overall.
Often the British team is proud of every team member coming home with a colored medal. From Albufeira to Antalya, Brussels to Belgrade, Toro to Tilsburg, airport metal detectors have been kept busy as departing Brits show up to fly home with their silverware.
Such was Britain’s strength, even one of its athletics clubs, Aldershot, Farnham and District, managed to top the medal table in its own right. In 2011, we reported on the Euro Cross held in Slovenia. “If AFD had entered as a single country in the last seven editions of the European Intercontinental Championships, they would have topped the overall medal table when it came to medals won in individual events.”
The People’s Republic of AFD, as it is called, does not have much influence in the Eurocross these days. But even last year in Antalya, only University of Birmingham runners won nine medals, including three individual honors.
However, this all came to a screeching halt in the shifting sands of Lagoa on Sunday (December 14). Spain topped the medal table with three golds and eight medals overall, while Britain finished third with two golds and six medals.
Even sixth-placed France won more medals than Britain, with nine, although only one of those was gold. It meant France topped the table, where points are shared from first to eighth, with Spain second and Britain third, just one point ahead of Belgium as Ireland finished fifth.
The crown slipped. British runners are no longer the kings and queens of Europe.
So where did it go wrong?
First, a word of praise to the medal winners. Innes Fitzgerald had a big win in the women’s under-20 race, claiming her third title and keeping every eye on Britain’s next superstar.
Megan Keith overcame an early fall to win the senior women’s silver, ahead of Italy’s Nadia Battocletti. Keith also led the British to team silver, while the under-20s won team silver and a hard-fought bronze in the medley relay.
Britain also had some bad luck. Apart from Keith’s fall, Scott Beattie was a whisker away from winning the men’s senior medal. Michael Clarke, the British Under-20 Trials winner, lost his shoe in his race and finished 18th. Will Barnicoat’s bid to defend the Under-23 men’s title was cut short by injury and he finished 14th.
Of course, a number of leading British athletes were absent. Marathon runners like Emil Keires, Alex Yee, Patrick Dever, Mohamed Mohamed, Phil Sesemann, Callie Hauger-Tuckery and Eilish McColgan are finding the roads more appealing than the cross-country these days. Imagine a medley relay team with Josh Carey, Jake Wightman, Georgia Hunter Bell and Laura Muir. Great Britain has rarely fielded its absolute strongest names over the years, but has still managed to top the medals table.
Perhaps a more direct factor in UK’s low performance this year is the influence of the NCAA system in the United States. George Couty, for example, finished 2nd to Nils Laros in the Under 20 race in Turkey 12 months ago and would round out the GB class of 2025 nicely. to Europe.
This next point is a touchy subject, but do enough current coaches really see the value of distance running when it comes to developing their athletes? For example, athletes such as Paula Radcliffe (women’s winner in 1998 and 2003) and Mo Farah (men’s winner in 2006 and runner-up in 2008-2009) are among those who have used the Euro cross as a springboard to greatness.
Mick Woods, the coach behind AFD’s success, guided athletes like Charlotte Perdue, Emelia Gorecka, Steph Twell, Jess Piasecki and others to cross-country success, and with the exception of Gorecka, they all ran great marathons in later years.
Britain aside, it’s clear that Europe’s top runners appreciate the Euro Cross experience, from Olympic medalist Battocletti to world 10,000m champion Jimmy Gressier (a close 2nd on Sunday) to Olympic 5,000m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen (a late withdrawal this year when he was on course to finish fourth).
It’s probably a minor factor, but did the indoor turf at Liverpool’s Sefton Park provide the best experience for the Brits? Given the sandy course the athletes faced in Lagoa, the trials could have been better located on Blackpool Beach. Although to be fair, Sefton Park has certainly served a few British teams well in the past.
Finally, maybe the 2025 results for the UK were just an aberration. Just 12 months ago, after all, Great Britain topped Turkey’s medal table with six golds and a total of 12 medals, more than double their nearest rivals Italy.
READ MORE. 2025 Euro Cross cover
The event will return to Belgrade next year. The Serbian city staged the Eurocross in 2013 and on that occasion Great Britain topped the medal table with five golds and nine medals, well ahead of second-placed France.
Also, if the rumors that Britain want to host the event soon are true, they should definitely be in contention for the gold medal. After all, nothing improves the atmosphere of an event like some home nation hopes.
