Four-time champion Yasemin Can has been named in a 30-strong Türkiye team for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa on 14 December.
The 28-year-old Can won the senior women’s crown at Chia 2016, Samorin 2017, Tilburg 2018 and Lisbon 2019. She also claimed bronze last year in Antalya 2024.
In recent years, Can who is also a three-time European champion on the track (5000m/10,000m gold, Amsterdam 2016 and 10,000m gold, Munich 2022) has found consistency hard to come by.
But she clocked a brilliant national record of 30:36 in a 10km road race in Brasov, Romania in October to demonstrate good form.
Also travelling to Lagoa are Kıyasettin Kara, who won the men’s 3000m steeplechase at the Tampere 2025 European Athletics U20 Championships and Ali Tunç, who was 7th in the men’s 5000m at Tampere 2025. Both are in the men’s U20 team.