Efrem Gidey has a golden opportunity to bounce back from just missing out on a medal at the European Running Championships last month when the Irishman stands on the start line of the European 10,000m Cup in Pacé, France on Saturday (18).
- Final entries | by season’s best
- Final entries | by country order
Gidey audaciously went with ferocious early pace set in Belgium by France’s eventual half marathon winner Jimmy Gressier and tired during the second half of the race before being beaten in a sprint finish for the bronze by Gressier’s compatriot Valentin Gondouin.
Nevertheless, it was the best result at a major senior international championship for the 2019 European Cross Country Championships U20 bronze medallist and Gidey is looking to climb onto the podium in the Brittany town after an outstanding eight months when he has made three revisions to the Irish record books.
His record-breaking spree started last September when he set a national half marathon record of 1:00:51 in Copenhagen and continued on the roads over 10km in Valencia in January when he ran 27:43 to improve by three seconds a mark which had belonged to Irish icon John Treacy for 40 years.
He then went on to clock 27:26.95 over 10,000m in California eight weeks ago and it’s this mark he will be hoping to reduce further on Saturday evening.
Sub-27 the target
“I need to focus on (breaking) 27 minutes (for 10,000m) now for the World Championships,” Gidey told Irish media in the wake of his European Running Championships outing last month, with the automatic qualifying mark for a trip to Tokyo in September being 27:00.00.
It is worth noting that considering such talk the men’s European 10,000m Cup record is 27:14.44, set back in 1998 at just the second edition of the Cup by Spain’s Fabián Roncero.
Regardless of his time, if Gidey were to win he would also create a little bit of Cup history as the first ever Irish winner – man or woman, individual or team – in the 28-year history of the competition.
Gidey is the only man in the list of 35 entries in the men’s competition to have broken 28 minutes this year, with the next fastest France’s Florian Le Pallec.
Le Pallec – the 2021 European U23 10,000m silver medallist but now a newly minted professional runner after finishing his US collegiate running career at the renowned Butler University at the end of 2024 – reduced his personal best to 28:10.72 at the same meeting in California in March, albeit in a different race to Gidey.
Gidey may have the quickest time over 25 laps to his name prior to the gun going in Pace but no less than eight other men have broken 28 minutes in their careers, and several will undoubtably have victory ambitions of their own.
Gondouin aiming for home success
The aforementioned Valentin Gondouin ran 27:41.37 in London last year and he will be accompanied in a strong French team which is looking to reclaim the team title they won in 2021 and 2022 by not only Le Pallec but sub 2:07 marathoner Felix Bour, who has a best of 27:27.11, and 2023 European U23 3000m steeplechase bronze medallist Baptiste Guyon, the latter making his debut over the distance.
In addition to their other credentials, Bour and Gondouin finished second and third at the high-quality Sevilla half marathon in January in 1:00:00 and 1:00:17 respectively.
Simon Debognies, in similar fashion to Gidey, will be aiming to become Belgium’s first men’s winner at the Cup. Another man with medals at European U20 and U23 championships, now 28 he returns to the 10,000m after a three-year hiatus having run 27:57.29 on the Pacé track in 2022.
Debognies showed he was in good form last month at the European Running Championships when he finished not far from Gondouin and Gidey in sixth place in the half marathon.
One place in front of him in the race was Italian marathon record-holder Yohanes Chiappinelli who clocked 2:05:24 in the Valencia Marathon last December.
Chiappinelli, the 2015 and 2017 European U20 and U23 3000m steeplechase winner, has a rather modest 10,000m best of 28:29.06 but his form on the roads since that start of the year suggests that could undergo a major revision.
Can Spain reign again?
As always, Spain – the most successful country in the history of the Cup – will be represented by a strong team looking to add to their tally of 19 men’s titles.
Jesus Ramos, fifth in the European Running Championships 10km last month, is the fastest man in their team with a best of 27:49.73 and looking to be his country’s first individual winner since Antonio Abadia triumphed in 2017.
Germany’s Nils Voigt, fourth in 2021, has a best of 27:30.01 and could also be a factor when the medals are decided after winning the German 10,000m title earlier this month in an unchallenged 28:19.83.
Also in the German team is Lukas Ehrle, who has little significant form on the track to date but took two medals at the European Athletics Off-Road Running Championships last summer and is a former European U20 mountain running champion.
The 2025 European 10,000m Cup will be streamed live on the European Athletics YouTube channel without any restrictions and will be accompanied by English-language commentary.
Phil Minshull for European Athletics