Twice European U20 medallist Kevin Kamenschak won the senior men’s race at the Austrian Cross Country Championships in Sankt Margarethen on Sunday (23) booking a place at the Lagoa 2025 SPAR European Cross Country Championships on 14 December.
The 21-year-old, who won 1500m silver and 5000m bronze at the Jerusalem 2023 European Athletics U20 Championships, picked up his first national senior cross country title with a decisive move in the closing stages.
Kamenschak, 2024 national short-course champion Tobias Rattinger and Lukas Novak broke clear in the early stages of the 9.1km race over seven laps.
With over a minute gap to the chasing pack at halfway, the medallists were almost certain, their distribution less so. But as they approached the final lap, Kamenschak who was eighth in the men’s U23 race at the Antalya 2024 SPAR European Cross Country Championships, made a decisive surge for gold.
He finished in 26:40, five seconds ahead of Rattinger, with Novak a further eight seconds adrift.
"A real treat"
"I was able to train really well over the last three months, but to run a race again after such a long time and crown my comeback with my first national cross-country title is, of course, a real treat,” he told the Austrian Athletics Federation website.
“For the first two-thirds of the race, I just wanted to see how I felt, but it went very smoothly. Then I put everything into one attack 1500m from the finish, wanting to create a gap right away.
“I managed that quite well and surprised the other two a bit. Now I'm already looking forward to the European Cross Country Championships; today I showed that I'm in good shape, the test was a success."
The women’s race was won by defending champion Carina Reicht who led every step of the way on the 5.2km course. Both winners secured automatic qualification for Lagoa 2025.
Ďurec takes double in Slovak Republic
At the Slovak Republic Cross Country Championships in Žiar Nad Hronom, Peter Ďurec picked up both the men’s long course (10km) and short course (4km) titles. In the senior women’s races, long course (8km) winner Veronika Páleníková and short course (4km) winner Lucia Pelikánová took the spoils.
Pictures provided by Alfred Nevsimal