Italy retained their mixed relay crown with a perfectly judged race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa on Sunday (14), while world 1500m champion Isaac Nader thrilled the home crowd by snatching silver for Portugal.
For the hosts, this was their first ever mixed relay medal at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships and their only medal of the championships.
In summary:
- Reigning champions Italy show their class
- Nader slices through the field to claim silver for Portugal
- Great Britain win bronze once again
How the race unfolded...
Italy fielded three members of their gold medal-winning team from Antalya 2024 — Sebastiano Parolini, Marta Zenoni and Pietro Arese — who were joined by Gaia Sabbatini who anchored Italy to a dramatic gold on home soil in Turin in 2022.
Their experience told as they executed a flawless race, leading from the second leg onwards to claim a decisive victory in 17:12 over the 5.96km course.
The opening leg was dominated by Türkiye, who gambled by starting with a male runner. Mevlüt Aras quickly opened up a commanding lead over the all-female first-leg field. However, the tactic failed to pay dividends as Damla Çelik was engulfed by the chasing pack of male runners on the second leg, extinguishing the Turkish challenge.
Instead, the familiar colours of Italy, Great Britain and France took charge, with Ireland and Belgium also prominent. Zenoni’s third leg of 4:37 gave Italy daylight at the front and left Arese with a solid four-second advantage over Great Britain.
Meanwhile, Portugal were also accelerating through the field. Salomé Afonso — silver medallist over 1500m and bronze medallist over 3000m at the Apeldoorn 2025 European Indoor Championships — took over in 12th place but clocked a superb leg of 4:35 to bring the hosts firmly into contention.
She handed over to her boyfriend Nader in fifth place and within striking distance of the medals. The world 1500m champion relished the quick course and, urged on by the crowd, scythed through the field to move into second position.
Arese, however, remained beyond reach and brought home gold for L'Azzurri for a record-equalling third time, with Nader confirming silver for Portugal, finishing four seconds adrift.
Great Britain repeated their result from last year by claiming bronze a further second behind, courtesy of a solid all-round team effort from Ava Lloyd, Jack Higgins, Holly Dixon and Callum Elson.
What they said
Pietro Arese: "This is the fourth time I run the relay and for the first time all the work was done when I got the baton so I am so grateful for my team, all I had to do was to maintain the place so a big big thank you to them!"
Isaac Nader: "We knew we would finish stronger than the other teams with Salomé and myself. Everyone knew that role. When Rodrigo transferred the baton to Salomé we were far away from the leaders but I knew Salomé was going to pass some people and put closer to the medals."
Callum Elson: "Obviously we are racing in Portugal. Isaac Nader, the world champion, is Portuguese, so I could hear that when he was following me the whole way because the crowd was getting louder and louder and louder. I just thought that if he goes past me, I need to hope there is not another person so that I can keep a medal. We will try to get him next time."