Paulo Guerra is not just one of the greats of Portuguese distance running but also one of the legends of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
Guerra has the distinction of being the first ever senior men’s champion, winning gold in Alnwick 1994 and leading Portugal to the team title. Guerra went on to win four senior men’s titles between 1994 and 2000, a feat that has only been replicated by Ukraine’s Serhiy Lebid who went on to win nine titles in total.
Guerra also has the distinction of being one of the few non-East African athletes to make the podium individually at the World Cross Country Championships. He won bronze in Belfast 1999 and also led Portugal to team bronze as well.
Guerra is still highly involved in athletics and he currently serves as Vice-President of the Portuguese Athletics Federation. He has also been confirmed as an event ambassador for this year’s SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa on 14 December, the fourth time Portugal has staged the championships.
Paulo Guerra, you are one of the standard bearers when it comes to cross country. When you look back, how do you analyse what made you different?
Essentially, I loved running cross country. It was a passion, and that's where I discovered that I felt, as they say, like a fish in water. This is due to the characteristics of the area where I was born, where I lived, and where I trained, in Barrancos [on the border of Spain and Portugal], an area with very rugged terrain.
And it was like that since I was a kid, running on those rugged courses in Barrancos, which gave me endurance and strength. And so, thanks to that, when I entered the first races, I was winning quite easily, practically without even training for athletics.
Was it this endurance gained in Barrancos that gave you the strength to go to the limit, even when it sometimes seemed that you had already exhausted all your energy?
In the book by our great champion Carlos Lopes [1984 Olympic marathon champion], he talked about the "strength to win". And I believe that's exactly it, it's the strength of wanting to win and, above all, believing that we are not inferior to anyone, that being in shape we are not afraid of anyone and we go in to win. That winning spirit, that of a winner.
When I was in shape and if the terrain had the characteristics that I liked, I wasn't afraid of anyone in the world. There's another thing that's very important: I planned for cross country in detail with my coaches, but many times I trained alone and during the three months leading up to a certain goal, I only saw and only trained for cross country.
Do you feel, all these years later, that it was worth it?
Yes, yes. Without a doubt. When I look back, I value what I achieved more. Because I see that it was indeed difficult. It was very difficult, but I succeeded, we managed to mark a generation, we managed to make history, we succeeded – as the great coach, Professor Moniz Pereira, told us, that if we were given the same conditions, we were not inferior to anyone – and so, as he said, we managed to take the name of Portugal far and wide and ended up making history in the world of athletics, essentially based on this aspect that is so exciting as cross country.
You mentioned Carlos Lopes. What was it like to train and compete with big names like Domingos Castro, Fernando Mamede, among so many others who made the golden age of distance running?
I remember one early morning in August 1984, during the Los Angeles Olympic Games, my father came to get me from my room at 3:30 am – two years earlier I had already been the athletics champion of the Beja district – and that morning, seeing Carlos Lopes win the gold medal in the Olympic marathon, I told my father that one of my dreams, what I wanted, was to try to be a champion like Carlos Lopes was.
I was very young, but my idols weren't football players or music groups, my idols were Carlos Lopes and Fernando Mamede, because we had an Olympic champion and a world record-holder on the track. So I tried to follow in their footsteps. Fortunately, I managed to spend time with some of them, learning what they did in terms of professionalism, dedicated to the sport 24 hours a day. And only with that dedication were we all able to take the name of Portugal and the flag of Portugal to the highest level.
But are you aware that you are also one of the great names in cross country running?
Without a doubt. To be able to climb the podium 17 times at the World and European Cross Country Championships.
Obviously, when I look back, I feel immense pride, knowing how difficult it was. We belong to a golden generation that started with Carlos Lopes and Fernando Mamede, but then, in the 1990s, we had numerous titles in all areas of middle distance and long-distance running, and belonging to that generation is a privilege and it feels like it was worth it, as I said.
And if you asked me if I would do the same again, I would undoubtedly try to do the same, I would try to improve some aspects that I couldn't at certain times.
What message would you leave for the younger athletes?
The message I usually leave for them is to never stop believing. And above all: train very hard, because there is no champion who doesn't train extremely hard. Set a well-planned goal and train together. I believe that with the grit so characteristic of the Portuguese people – we have always been a people with a lot of grit, we have never been a complacent people and the genes are there.
Obviously, we also have to give them the conditions, as we have done, but if they get it into their heads that they can reach the level they want, then I believe that we can have some success in cross country again. I'm not going to say, obviously, exactly the same as it was in the times of Lopes, Paulo Guerra or Domingos Castro but I believe a lot, and in the Federation we believe a lot in this new generation that is appearing in the U23 category.
What they are doing, the times they are achieving in the distances on the track, prove it.
What are your expectations for this major competition taking place in Portugal in which the Portuguese Athletics Federation is involved in the organisation?
Portugal is exemplary in the art of welcoming and organising sporting events well. And that's what we want: to convey a beautiful image of our country to the athletes who visit us and to those who will watch on television. May it be a wonderful day for the event.
In terms of the national team, we don't have any barriers; we believe we can come close to achieving something, especially at a team level, but what we want is for the Portuguese athletes, as they are extremely young, to once again show extra determination for competing at home. And perhaps with that determination, we can surprise.
Portugal is hosting the European Cross Country Championships for the fourth time, and as they say abroad, the Portuguese people welcome well, organise well, and that is fundamental to the success of yet another event that we want to make a country proud of tourism, and sports tourism is also essential for the Portuguese economy.
That's why we're all committed to holding a great European Cross Country Championship in Lagoa.