It took Jessica Augusto a decade to emulate her U20 success on the senior stage but the wait was more than worth it as she ran out victorious on home soil in Albufeira at the 2010 SPAR European Cross Country Championships, the second time Portugal had staged the championships after Oeiras 1997.
This is the second of a three-part series looking back at the previous editions of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships staged on Portuguese soil ahead of Lagoa on 14 December.
Augusto's golden homecoming
Having been part of Portugal’s gold medal-winning teams in both 2008 and 2009, Augusto landed individual success with a confident display of front running, winning the senior women’s 8.17km in 26:52 by five seconds ahead of Türkiye’s Binnaz Uslu.
"Deep down I knew I had a chance and that I was a candidate for the gold. I took control of the race from the start because I wanted to win, and I went and got the title! I know that I was a favourite with a lot of athletes there and my rivals knew in advance that, if all went well, I could be a winner," explained Augusto who became the first ever Portuguese winner of this title.
Augusto was at the forefront of a second-wave of excellent Portuguese female distance runners who combined to win a third successive senior women’s team title, and their fourth since 2006.
Dulce Felix outsprinted soon-to-be two-time individual champion Fionnuala McCormack - then Britton - for the bronze medal with Marisa Barros and Sara Moreira finishing sixth and ninth respectively to ensure a successful defence of their team title.
Incidentally, 2010 was the last time Portugal has won a gold medal in any event at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships but there will be high hopes - and not unreasonably so - that a team helmed by world 1500m champion Isaac Nader could challenge for the mixed relay title in Lagoa this year.
Augusto will be one of the special guests on-site in Lagoa as she is one of the event ambassadors along with four-time winner Paulo Guerra.
A "perfect race" yields ninth title for Lebid
The rumours of Serhiy Lebid’s demise had been greatly exaggerated as the blonde-haired Ukrainian returned to win a historic ninth senior men’s title in Albufeira at the age of 35.
Making his 17th appearance at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships having been an ever-present since 1994, Lebid had to settle for bronze in 2009 which led some to ponder whether he was on the decline after a decade-long period of dominance. However, the Ukrainian extended his historic record in Albufeira with what he described as "the perfect race."
Lebid’s task was eased somewhat by the dual absence of reigning champion Alemayehu Bezabeh from Spain and Brit Mo Farah - who won a 5000/10,000m double at the 2010 European Athletics Championships in Barcelona - but the veteran still had to draw on all of his experience and strength to reclaim his title ahead of a pack of younger aspirants.
There were similarities to Lebid’s victory over Farah at the 2008 SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Brussels with the Ukrainian launching his winning move on the final uphill section on the last lap to pull away from Spaniard Ayad Lamdassem for a three second victory, a historic ninth successive title and his 12th individual medal in total.
“This was almost the perfect race for me. I was at 99 per cent apart from a slight stomach discomfort in the middle of the race,” said Lebid, who admitted he was oblivious to the absence of his main rivals.
"I didn’t know I was the favourite until Friday. To be honest, I didn’t look at the start list and who was going to be here until then. I had no idea that Bezabeh and Farah were not going to be running," he added.
But at 35, this victory proved to be Lebid’s final hurrah in a championship which he has defined. Lebid won nine titles between 1998 and 2010 and made 19 successive appearances at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships between 1994 and 2012, two records which could quite possibly stand the test of time.
There was also a surprise bronze medal for Youssef El Kalai who led Portugal to the silver medal in the team race behind France who pipped the hosts for the title by two points.
Familiar faces feature in U20 and U23 races
At a modest 3.97km, the U20 women’s race was by far the shortest race of the programme but Charlotte Purdue’s winning margin by far the biggest of the day.
Having won individual bronze in 2007 and silver in 2008 when Great Britain memorably swept the top six places, Purdue capped her illustrious junior career with a gun-to-tape 17-second victory over Serbia’s Amela Terzic, crossing the line in 12:42.
Reigning European 1500m champion Ciara Mageean from Ireland was a notable seventh while Germany’s Gesa Felicitas Krause took some of her first steps towards an illustrious career as a senior in the 3000m steeplechase, finishing 11th and helping Germany to team silver behind Great Britain.
By contrast, the U20 men’s 6.07km came down to a sprint finish with Spain’s Abdelaziz Merzougui outsprinting Serbia’s Nemanja Cerovac - both athletes were given the same time at 18:07 - with Rui Pinto winning the host nation’s first medal with bronze, leading Portugal to team silver.
Behind Hassan Chahdi and Florian Carvalho who won gold and silver respectively for France, the men’s U23 race was notable in retrospect for the names who finished further down the field. Among those who finished more than one minute behind Chahdi were 2022 European marathon champion Richard Ringer and 2020 Olympic marathon silver medallist Abdi Nageeye who finished 31st and 33rd respectively.
Finishing even further back, current European marathon record-holder Bashir Abdi only finished 41st, proving there are multiple paths to sporting success.
Despite France taking a 1-2 individually, the team title surprisingly went to Ireland even though their leading counter David McCarthy only finished 11th. History repeated at the 2021 SPAR European Cross Country Championships where Ireland recaptured this team title amid euphoric scenes on home soil in Dublin.
The women’s U23 title went to Spain’s Cristina Jordan albeit belatedly after initial winner Meryam Erdogan from Türkiye was disqualified in 2012 for abnormalities in her biological passport.
Emma Pallant was subsequently upgraded from bronze to silver before embarking on a highly successful duathlon and Ironman triathlon career.
Great Britain topped the medal table with four gold medals ahead of hosts Portugal who had one of their best ever SPAR European Cross Country Championships, winning two gold medals and seven in total.
Full results from 2010 can be found here.