Recently crowned world 1500m champion Isaac Nader will compete on home soil at the 2025 SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa on 14 December.
Nader forms part of a strong Portuguese team in the mixed relay that has a genuine chance of contending for the title. The team also includes his partner Salome Afonso, a double medallist at the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn and a 1500m finalist at the World Athletics Championships.
They will be joined by world indoor 800m bronze medallist Patricia Silva and 2019 European U20 1500m champion Nuno Pereira who improved to 3:32.16 this year.
The senior teams will be pronged by Mariana Machado and Jose Carlos Pinto, both of whom won the Portuguese Cross Country Championships title on Sunday at the same venue which will stage the SPAR European Cross Country Championships next month.
A two-time medallist in the U23 race, Machado finished fifth in the senior women’s race at last year’s SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Antalya before improving to fourth in the 10km at the European Running Championships in Brussels-Leuven.
By contrast, Pinto will be making his individual SPAR European Cross Country Championships debut after competing in the mixed relay last year. The 27-year-old is part of a strong Portuguese team which also includes Miguel Moreira, who finished 13th in Antalya last year, and Etson Barros, a European medallist on the track at U18, U20 and U23 level.
This will be the fourth time that Portugal will have hosted the SPAR European Cross Country Championships after previous editions in Oeiras 1997, Albufeira 2010 and Lisbon 2019.
Incidentally, the last time Portugal won a gold medal at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships was back in Albufeira 2010 when Jessica Augusto, who is an event ambassador for Lagoa 2025, won individual gold and lead the Portuguese to the team title in the senior women's race.
The full Portuguese team can be found here.