The year of cross country running arcs across two winter seasons, bookending the summer track season and the spring and autumn road race calendar.
Nevertheless, after their triumphs at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Antalya, Türkiye on 8 December, there is no doubt that Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Nadia Battocletti deserve their crown as the 2024 king and queen of the continent’s cross country runners.
Both came into the winner having had outstanding summers which in both cases included European titles at Roma 2024 and Olympic medals in Paris, which in Ingebrigtsen’s case was one of a golden hue after his 5000m triumph in the French capital.
In a familiar scenario, Ingebrigtsen didn’t bother with any warm-up cross country races but comfortably won his third senior men’s title and his seventh individual title overall in Antalya.
He once again dominated the race and saw off the best of Europe's other distance runners in some style, leaving Italy’s two-time U20 winner and European half marathon champion Yemaneberhan Crippa trailing in his wake to win by eight seconds while bronze on this occasion went to Thierry Ndikumwenayo of Spain, who led his country to the senior men’s team title.
"Cross country is something that I really enjoy. It's very different from my other competitions, there's something special and exciting about around 100 people being at the starting line, going for the first turn," commented Ingebrigtsen.
More gold for Battocletti
By contrast, the Roma 5000m/10,000m champion Battocletti had two warm up races in November before her trip across the Mediterranean, including a hugely impressive win in the Madrid suburbs at the Cross Internacional de la Constitución in Alcobendas, a World Athletics Cross Country Tour Gold meeting.
She came home 1:13 in front of Germany’s 2022 European 5000m champion Konstanze Klosterhalfen who has been on the comeback trail after a summer of setbacks including illness.
Klosterhalfen showed much of her old form had returned when she closed the gap to 11 seconds in Antalya’s Dokuma Parek but Battocletti was still majestic with continental glory on the line.
On the last of five 1510m laps in Antalya’s, the Italian wound up the tempo, consistently gaining crucial metres over the hills before moving away from her remaining rivals.
Klosterhalfen matched her result from two years ago by holding on to take the silver medal and Türkiye’s four-time former champion Yasemin Can giving the home fans something to cheer, claiming bronze a further six seconds back in her first cross country outing since she dropped out of the 2022 SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
Battocletti – who became the first woman to win European cross country titles at U20, U23 and senior level – made a second trip to the top of the podium after it was confirmed Italy also won the team title, the first time the Azzurri had ever got a team medal of any description in this category
Italy also took the mixed relay title in Antalya, but Great Britain topped the medal table with 12 medals – six of them gold – thanks once again in no small part to their success in the age-group races which helped to take their overall tally of medals from the SPAR European Cross Country Championships up to 199.
British age-group gold rush
Will Barnicoat, Phoebe Anderson and Innes FitzGerald won the men’s U23 and women’s U23 and U20 titles respectively and led the scorers for their triumphant teams.
Notably, both Barnicoat and FitzGerald retained their titles from 12 months ago and will still be young enough to go for a hat-trick of titles in their age-groups at the 2025 edition of the championships in Lagoa, Portugal.
The men’s U20 race was the only one of the age-group contests that didn’t see a British win with 2024 European Athletics Rising Star of the Year Niels Laros confirming his status as a supreme talent with another victory after the Dutch runner has achieved a host of accolades on the track during the summer.
Laros, second 12 months ago in Brussels, had started as the prohibitive favourite, not least after his win against senior opposition over 10km on home soil at the Warandeloop in Tilburg, a World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver meeting, two weeks earlier.
However, he was given a stern challenge by the surprise package George Couttie, who had the best race of his life, before finally shaking off the inspired Briton in the final couple of hundred metres and winning by two seconds.
Norway, led home by world U20 3000m champion Andreas Halvorsen in third, took the men’s U20 team title.
Great Britain get rare world cross medal
The World Cross Country Championships was also staged on European soil back in March with Belgrade being the host city.
This event has not provided many medals for European runners in the last couple of decades but there was a moment to savour in the Serbian capital when Great Britain finished the mixed relay in third place.
The British quartet of Thomas Keen, Alex Miller, Adam Fogg and Bethan Morley combined to produce an outstanding effort and get their nation’s first senior medal at this championship for 20 years and Europe's first since 2017.
Spanish athletes led the European challenge in the senior men’s race with Ndikumwenayo finishing ninth and the best non-African runner while Spain were fourth in the team standings behind a trio of African countries who took the medals.
Norway’s three-time SPAR European Cross Country Champion Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal, who was unable to bid for a fourth title in Antalya after falling ill just a few days beforehand, was 14th in the senior women’s race and the second non-African, while Spain were fifth and the leading European team.
Playas de Castellon clean up at ECCC Cross Country
Ndikumwenayo made a small piece of history when he became the first man to win European Champion Clubs Cup Cross Country titles as both a senior and U20 athlete at this year’s event in Albufeira, Portugal on 25 February.
This year's event saw the Playas de Castellon squad - including Ndikumwenayo - again prove to be the dominant force at the competition, the Spanish club taking no less than five of the nine titles.
In addition to both senior individual victories, Playas de Castellon retained their senior men’s and mixed relay team titles and also regained the U20 men’s team crown last won in 2018.
A key part of the European cross country calendar is the World Athletics Cross Country Tour, which shows just how much the continent continues to be the beating heart of the discipline with the Silver and Bronze meetings falling under the aegis of European Athletics.
In January and February 2024, nine meetings were staged of which seven were in Europe: four Gold, one Silver and two Bronze.
Similarly, between October and December 2024, 20 meetings have been staged with 18 in Europe: 10 Gold, seven Silver and one Bronze.
Phil Minshull for European Athletics