European Cross-Country - Celebrating 30 Years of Success

by Perri Williams

The European Cross Country Championships will be held in Antalya, Turkey on the 8th December and marks the 30th anniversary of the event. The event has gone from strength to strength over the years from that first edition where there were just 180 athletes from 23 countries taking part to now catering for about 700 athletes from 40 countries.

The first edition of the Euro-cross took place in 1994 at Alnwick Castle. For those Harry Potter fans out there, the location is more famously associated with Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films. With just two races on offer back then, Ireland was privileged to have one out of the two winners – Catherina McKiernan took gold. Finally, a gold in a major cross-country event after three successive silvers in the World Cross-Country championships. McKiernan held off Spain’s Julia Vaquero by just one second in what was a ding dong battle to the line. Romania’s Elena Fidatov took the bronze. The team competition was one of the closest yet with Romania taking gold, just a meagre two points ahead of France and Portugal. The men’s winner was Portugal’s Paulo Guerra by a staggering 16 seconds from his countryman the famous Domingos Castro. Spain’s Antonio Serrano secured the bronze with Portugal getting the team gold as Guerra and Castro were backed up by Antonio Pinto in 8th place.

In contrast to that first edition which featured just two races, this year’s 30th edition will see Europe’s top runners race on a course that features mud and sand and across seven races. Added through the years have been the u20 and u23 races along with the mixed relay. The u20 races were introduced in 1997 and the u23 category in 2006. The most recent addition has been the mixed relay which made its debut in 2017.

Athletic Legends
Many of Europe’s athletic legends have taken part. Amongst those legends are Paula Radcliffe (GB) who won in 1998 and 2003. The current Olympic Marathon Champion Sifan Hassan (Netherlands) won the event in 2015. Mo Farrah (GB) won his first senior title in 2006 the start of his international cross-country career. Then of course we have Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen who dominated the U20 category with four consecutive wins ranging from 2016 to 2019. He skipped the u23 race in Dublin in 2021 and raced instead in the senior race which he won in both 2021 and 2022. Injury prevented him from racing in Brussels last year. But Ingebrigtsen will be back this year and bidding for his third senior win in Antalya.

Another remarkable achievement from one of the athletic legends was the three successive u23 wins from Frenchman Jimmy Gressier. Gressier won his u23 titles between 2017 and 2019. On all three occasions he led France to team gold. Megan Keith (GB) won the u23 ladies title last year with one of the biggest leads ever in any of the euro-cross races by 1 minute 23 seconds.
Yasemin Can (Turkey) has the most senior ladies’ consecutive titles, with four to her name (2016-2019). Although that accolade could be shared this year by Norway’s Karolina Grøvdal. Grøvdal has won the senior ladies euro-cross for the past three years; Dublin in 2021, Turin in 2022 and Brussels in 2023. Can she make it title number 4. Incidentally Grøvdal does already have a fourth title, she won the u20 European Cross-Country back in 2009 in Dublin. Grøvdal is probably one of the most successful females ever at the European Cross-Country. She has won a total of 10 individual medals. Our own Sonia O’Sullivan may have won two World Cross-Country titles but her highest European placing was 4th back in 2003, where she led the Irish senior team to silver.

The ladies u20 races have been won by Jessica Augusto (2000), Karoline Grøvdal (2009), Konstanze Klosterhalfen (2015-16) and Nadia Battocletti (2018-19) on the women’s side. Briton Innes Fitzgerald took the 2023 title with Danish athlete Axel Vang Christensen taking the men’s title.

While Jacob Ingebrigtsen may have won six individual gold medals from six euro-cross outings, his achievements are out-ranked by Ukrainian Serhiy Lebid who epitomises euro-cross dominance. Lebid has won nine individual titles between 1998 and 2010 and has 12 medals in total. The Ukrainian has made a total of 19 appearances in Euro-cross.
In terms of total medal stances (team and individual), it is Great Britain that sits on top of the leader board with 83 golds and 189 total. Second is France with 35 golds, ahead of Spain (23) and hosts Turkey (22). Ireland sits 7th on the medal table with a total of 26 medals – seven of them gold, three individual and four team.

Aside from Catherina McKiernan claiming the first ever female individual gold, Fionnuala McCormack is the most prolific female participant having competed 18 times. McCormack won gold in 2011 and 2012 along with a string of other top ten placings.
 

Locations
The locations have been as famous as some of the athletes themselves, with some rather unusual choices. The first two years were held at the Harry Potter famed Hogwarts (Alnwick Castle). The 2012 edition was held in an open-air museum near Budapest where temperatures plummeted below zero for the duration of the event. In 2018 in Tilburg, the course was on the perimeter of a Safari Park. Who can forget 2022 in Turin where after running up a hill that seemed to kill every athlete, they ran through a 70m out-building in La Mandria Castle. Which we got to see once the fog had lifted. Ireland has held the event twice, first in 2009 in Santry and then in 2021 in Abbottstown. 
 

The Irish Success
Ireland has had some good recent success at the Euro-cross with our junior men’s team being particularly successful over the recent past. Individual winners were Catherina McKiernan in 1994 and Fionnuala McCormack in 2011 and 2012. In total we have had 11 top three finishes while 16 teams have placed in the top three, four of them securing the gold medals. Half of those team medals relate to 2019 onwards, demonstrating our recent strength in cross-country running amongst our European peers.
 

Individual:
1994 Senior Catherina McKiernan GOLD 14.29
1998 Junior Gareth Turnbull BRONZE 16.55
2006 U23 Fionnuala Britton SILVER 18.56
2011 Senior Fionnuala Britton GOLD 25.55
2012 Senior Fionnuala Britton GOLD 27.45
2019 Junior Efrem Gidey BRONZE 19.01
2019 U23 Stephanie Cotter BRONZE 21.15
2021 u23 Darragh McIlhenney SILVER 24.33
2022 u20 Nick Griggs SILVER 17.41 3 Dean Casey BRONZE 17.46
2023 u20 Nick Griggs BRONZE 16.24
 

Teams:

1999 Junior Team BRONZE 43 pts
8 Gary Murray 15 Brian Keane 20 Mark Smyth 75 Joe McAlister 94 Robert Connolly
2000 Senior Team BRONZE 72 pts
10 Peter Matthews 14 Seamus Power 23 Gareth Turnbull 25 Keith Kelly 55 Ken Nason 67 Fiachra Lombard
2003 Senior Team SILVER 78 pts
4 Sonia O’Sullivan 13 Rosemary Ryan 27 Ann Kennan Buckley 34 Catherina McKiernan 52 Marie Davenport
2004 Junior Team SILVER 54pts
5 Mark Christie 7 Andrew Ledwith 11 Danny Darcy 31 Jamie McCarthy 44 Joe Sweeney 56 Mark Hanrahan
2010 U23 Team GOLD 60 pts
11 David McCarthy 13 Brendan O’Neill 16 Michael Mulhare 20 David Rooney 34 John Coghlan 76 Ciarán Ó Lionáird
2012 Senior Team GOLD 52 pts
1 Fionnuala Britton 8 Linda Byrne 8th 20 Ava Hutchinson 23 Lizzie Lee 36 Sarah McCormack 42 Sara Treacy
2014 Senior Team BRONZE 87 pts
6 Fionnuala Britton 12 Sara Treacy 23 Michelle Finn 46 Ann Marie McGlynn 47 Siobhan O’Doherty 53 Laura Crowe
2015 Senior Team BRONZE 83 pts
4 Fionnuala McCormack (nee Britton) 13 Lizzie Lee 23 Caroline Crowley 43 Ciara Durkan 54 Michelle Finn 55 Kerry O’Flaherty 55th
2019 Senior Team SILVER 41 pts
4 Fionnuala McCormack (nee Britton) 17  Aoibhe Richardson 20 Ciara Mageean 35 Mary Mulhare 37 Una Britton 47 Fionnuala Ross
2019 U23 Team SILVER 29 pts
3 Stephanie Cotter 9 Eilish Flanagan 11 Roisin Flanagan 38 Fian Sweeney 47 Claire Fagan 57 Sorcha McAllister
2021 u23 Team GOLD 21 pts
2 Darragh McIlhenney 6 Keelan Kilrehill 13 Micheal Power 40 Donal Devane 44 Jamie Battle and 67 Thomas Devaney.
2021 u20 Team SILVER 35 pts
6 Abdel Laadjel 13 Dean Casey 16 Nick Griggs 21 Scott Fagan 50 Sean Kay 77 Cathal O’Rielly
2022 Senior Ladies BRONZE 50 pts
11 Eilish Flanagan, 12 Roisin Flanagan, 27 Mary Mulhare, 31 Ann-Marie McGlynn, 46 Aoibhe Richardson, 55 Michelle Finn
2022 u23 Men BRONZE 29 pts
5 Eifrem Giddy 9 Keelin Kilrehill 15 Shay McEvoy, 26 Darragh McIlhenney, 55 Jamie Battle, 63 Thomas McStay
2022 u20 men SILVER 29 pts
2 Nick Griggs 3 Dean Casey 12 Sean McGinely  18 Callum Morgan 33 Jonas Stafford 53 Mark Hanrahan 
2023 u20 GOLD 22 pts
3 Nick Griggs 9 Niall Murphy 10 Jonas Stafford, 26 Seamus Robinson, 28 Shane Brosnan, 40 Harry Colbert