Ireland’s 2021 European U20 3000m champion Nick Griggs will begin his cross country season at the prestigious Cross Internacional de San Sebastian, a World Athletics World Cross Country Tour Silver event, on Sunday (2).
The Cross Internacional de San Sebastián is the second Silver event to take place this autumn on the road to the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa, Portugal on 14 December.
Griggs has won individual medals at the last three editions of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships and the 21-year-old will be one of the favourites for the U23 title in Lagoa. He won individual silver in a sprint finish behind Will Barnicoat - who has one more year of eligibility left in this category - in Antalya last December.
There will be a strong Irish presence in the senior men’s race in San Sebastian. Aside from Griggs, the entry-list also features Cormac Dalton, who finished eighth in the senior men’s race at the 2023 SPAR European Cross Country Championships and Callum Morgan, a recent winner of a Bronze event in Dublin.
The line-up for the senior men’s race also features last year’s winner Santiago Catrofe from Uruguay and last year’s runner-up Martin Kiprotich from Uganda. Meanwhile, the domestic challenge will be led by Aaron Las Heras who was part of Spain’s gold medal-winning team in the senior men’s race at the 2024 SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
The women’s line-up features reigning European marathon champion Fatima Ouhaddou and European U23 3000m steeplechase silver medalist Marta Serrano. They will face opposition from Kenya’s Celestine Biwott who competed in the 3000m steeplechase at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
The Cross Internacional de San Sebastian is one of the oldest races on the calendar with the first edition dating back to 1956.
The roll-of-honour features many distance running legends including Emil Zatopek (1958), Mamo Wolde (1963-64, 1967), Carlos Lopes (1976) and Haile Gebrselassie (1994) on the men’s side and Carmen Valero (1974-77), Rosa Mota (1983-85) and Derartu Tulu (1996-97) on the women’s side.