Great Britain’s Will Barnicoat will be bidding for a hat-trick of U23 titles at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa, Portugal on 14 December.
But this could be the Brit’s toughest race so far as he faces arguably the strongest field that's ever been assembled for an U23 race in championships history.
The SPAR European Cross Country Championships will be streamed live on the European Athletics website from 9.00am local time (10.00am CET.)
Five to watch
- Will Barnicoat (GBR)
- Nick Griggs (IRL)
- Joel Ibler Lillesø (DEN)
- Stefan Nillessen (NED)
- Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen (NOR)
Key storylines
- Will Barnicoat aiming for his fourth successive individual gold medal
- Nick Griggs targeting elusive gold after three successive silver and bronze medals
- European U23 champions Stefan Nillessen, Joel Ibler Lillesø and Maciej Megier also in contention
Six of the top nine finishers from Antalya last year will return for this race including Ireland’s Nick Griggs who has twice been outsprinted by Barnicoat at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
Barnicoat reeled in a stumbling Griggs in icy conditions and sub-zero temperatures for the U20 title in Turin in 2022 before having to settle for silver again behind the Brit albeit in less dramatic circumstances in the U23 race in Antalya last year.
Griggs helms a strong Irish team who might fancy their prospects of challenging for the team title. Ireland has won this title twice before - in Albufeira 2010 and again in 2021 on home soil in Dublin - and their team includes Niall Murphy and Jonas Stafford who combined with Griggs to win the U20 team title in Brussels in 2023.
A trio of European U23 champions join the cast
But far from being a straightforward clash between last year’s gold and silver medallists, the line-up is fortified by the presence of three gold medallists from the European Athletics U23 Championships in Bergen.
While Niels Laros swept the 800m and 5000m titles, his training partner Stefan Nillessen retained his 1500m title and he will have aspirations of improving significantly on his 12th-place finish from last year.
But that performance was more impressive than it looks at face value as Nillessen had run for the Netherlands in the mixed relay less than one hour before.
On this occasion, Nillessen will be focusing solely on the U23 race and he arrives fresh from a promising third-place finish in the senior men’s 10km at the Warandeloop in Tilburg. By comparison, Nillessen finished 25th in the same race last year.
Nillessen’s hopes of achieving an unusual 1500/3000m steeplechase double in Bergen were foisted by Poland’s Maciej Megier who outsprinted the Dutchman off the final barrier for the title in a championship record of 8:20.17.
Like Nillessen, Megier is trending for an improvement on his relatively modest 19th-place finish last year. He hasn’t raced extensively this winter but he did recently win his Polish U23 cross country title by over 20 seconds.
The third recently crowned European U23 champion in action is the mercurial Dane Joel Ibler Lillesø who won the 10,000m title in a lung-busting sprint finish on his debut ahead of Sweden’s Jonathan Grahn - who is also competing - by a mere 0.04.
Lillesø, who is part of the same training group as Laros and Nillessen, finished out of the medals in seventh individually last year although he did lead Denmark to a surprise bronze medal in the team competition. Can he return to the podium individually four years after winning U20 bronze in Dublin.
Rising Norwegian star Halvorsen to make U23 debut
Another Nordic prospect who is capable of challenging is Norway’s world U20 3000m champion Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen who graduates into the U23 ranks after winning U20 bronze in a race won by Laros last year.
Still only 20, Fjeld Halvorsen took another notable victory in the senior race at the Nordic Cross Country Championships in Kastrup in Denmark last month, also leading Norway to the team title.
The French will also have high hopes in this race both individually and in the context of the team race. Their team includes last year’s ninth-placer Pierre Boudy, Anas Lagtiy Chaoudar - who improved to 3:31.58 in the 1500m this summer - and Ishak Dahmani who finished sixth in the U20 race last year.
Other contenders include last year’s fifth-placer Konjoneh Maggi from Italy and eighth-placer Kevin Kamenschak who arrives fresh from winning the senior title at the Austrian Cross Country Championships.
Did you know?
Jimmy Gressier won three successive individual and team titles in the U23 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships between 2017-19?
