The Serbian capital of Belgrade has been awarded the 2026 SPAR European Cross Country Championships at the European Athletics Council Meeting in Lausanne on Thursday (28).
This will be the second time that Belgrade has staged the SPAR European Cross Country Championships having previously hosted the event at the city’s Friendship Park in 2013. More recently, the same venue hosted the 2024 World Cross Country Championships.
European Athletics President Dobromir Karamarinov said: "We are very happy to award the SPAR European Cross Country Championships 2026 to Belgrade.
"We still have fond memories of the 2013 SPAR European Cross Country Championships, and since then the federation and city’s experience has grown considerably through hosting the 2017 European Athletics Indoor Championships, the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships, and most recently the 2024 World Cross Country Championships. Each of these events was organised to an exceptionally high standard.”
“Belgrade has shown a strong and consistent commitment to supporting athletics, and particularly running, in Europe. We are therefore very pleased to bring another of our flagship events to Serbia. And of course, we will be returning to Belgrade again in April 2027 for the second edition of the European Running Championships, the newest major event on the European Athletics calendar.”
Slobodan Branković, Director of the Serbian Athletics Federation and member of the European Athletics Council, said: "It is a great honour that European Athletics has recognised our dedication and the quality of organising previous major competitions. This is yet another confirmation that Serbia and Belgrade are capable of hosting the most important athletics events.
"I am confident that we will organise the 2026 SPAR European Cross Country Championships at the highest level, to the pride of all citizens of Serbia and to the benefit of the development of our sport.”
At the last edition of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Antalya last December, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen regained his title in the senior men’s race - his seventh individual gold medal in total - while Italy’s Nadia Battocletti made history by becoming the first female athlete to win individual U20, U23 and senior titles.
Great Britain topped the medal table again, taking their overall total of gold medals won in SPAR European Cross Country Championships history up to 99.
The 2025 SPAR European Cross Country Championships will be held in Lagoa, Portugal on 14 December.