Today marks the 100-day countdown to the 2025 European 10,000m Cup which takes place in Pacé, France on Saturday 24 May when Europe’s leading distance runners will be targeting individual and team honours and maybe even qualification for the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
The European 10,000m Cup returns as a standalone event this year after last year’s event was held in conjunction with the European Athletics Championships in Rome.
Hosts France have named a strong team for this year’s event, featuring recent European half marathon bronze medallist Valentin Gondouin on the men’s side and Paris 2024 Olympians Alessia Zarbo and Melody Julien on the women’s side.
Other recent medal winners from the European Running Championships who have signalled their intent to compete include half marathon winner Chloe Herbiet from Belgium and surprise 10km silver medallist Eva Dieterich from Germany, both of whom have set their sights on 10,000m qualification at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
The roll-of-honour for the European 10,000m Cup - which was introduced onto the calendar in 1997 under its initial alias of the European 10,000 Metres Challenge - reads like a who’s who of the great and the good of European distance running.
Some of the early winners of the event have included Olympic champions Dieter Baumann from Germany (1997, 2002) and Portugal’s Fernanda Ribeiro (1998, 2003) along with former world marathon record-holder and 2005 world marathon champion Paula Radcliffe who won in 1999 and 2001.
In more recent times, notable winners have included recently crowned European half marathon champion Jimmy Gressier - who won individual and team gold when Pacé staged the European 10,000m Cup in 2022 - and Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa who won his second individual European 10,000m Cup title in 2023, the last time the event was held as a standalone competition.