By Şevket F. ERBAY

European season finale XC championships were held in the beautiful Portuguese coast town of Lagoa, as the Spaniards became the most successful nation in the large-scale championship. Spain bagged eight medals and enjoyed listening to their anthem three times. 

Spain’s talented runner Thierry Ndikumwenayo upgraded his European XC bronze to gold by beating world champion Jimmy Gressier in Lagoa. Ndiku, a Burundian-born fast runner, was on the podium in Antalya last year and started the race very confident. He made a break in the penultimate lap alongside Jimmy Gressier of France, then took the lead in the last kilometres in the curvy course. He replied to Gressier’s attempts and turned to the last hundred metres as a leader by a meter. The Frenchman once again tried to accelerate, but he tumbled with 50 metres to go, which gave a convincing triumph to Ndikumwenayo.

Thierry Ndikumwenayo doubled his joy to Spain’s absolute victory in the team event and became the second Spanish man to make a double in the Euro XC seniors race, twelve years later than Alemayehu Bezabeh’s victory.

Switzerland’s Dominic Lobalu secured a bronze in the men’s race and he extended his continental collection. Lobalu outsprinted Briton Scott Beattie and clinched his berth by an inch.

SUPER NADIA

Italian star Nadia Battocletti claimed her sixth European Cross Country title in all, as well as retained her senior title from Antalya. The graced Italian gestured “No 6” at the finish, where she distanced fifteen seconds clear over Britain’s Megan Keith, who bagged her fourth individual medal at the championships. When Batocletti was within the final kilometer, the Italian team was projected to win silver in the team standings; however, late attacks changed the order, and defending champion Azzurri dropped off the podium in the final ranking. Behind Battocletti and Keith, former European XC champion Yasemin Can of Turkey claimed her sixth individual medal as a hard-fought bronze.

BELGIAN TEAM CROWN

Women’s team title goes to Belgium in a historic fashion. The Belgians took the female team crown for the first time ever with a triple Top 10 finish by Jana Van Lent, Lisa Rooms, and Chloe Verbiet. The 27-year-old Verbiet wrote a brilliant story after her amazing NR-breaking performance in Valencia Marathon in just one week ago!

Spain’s Maria Forero claimed the U23 title ahead of Ilona Mononen of Finland, who earned her fourth consecutive European podium. Nicholas Griggs became another “double winner” of the day while he swept the U23 race by a twelve-second gap and led the Irish team to glory.

Britain’s “next big thing”, Innes Fitzgerald, completed her hat-trick in junior race and joined Steph Twell’s feat in 2006-08. She recorded the most convincing victory ever in a U20 race at European XC by beating French rival Lucie Paturel by 32 seconds in a 4.5-kilometer course. At only 19, she has amassed eight European-level gold medals, including team titles.