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The Road to Toro: 6 days to go - event preview | 03.12.2007
 
Spain won medals at the very first SPAR European Cross Country Championships in 1994 and it will be aiming for an equally positive outcome when it makes its debut as a host for nearly 500 runners from 30 countries on December 9. "It's a great honour for this city to host the most important competition of the year in Europe in Cross Country running. We are confident that all local institutions will contribute to the success of the Championships," said Toro mayor Jesús Andrés Sedano recently. "Our country has the best calendar in the world in these kinds of events, and a long tradition, which has finally received the reward with the celebration of these Championships. Toro was designated as the venue because, amongst other things, because of its magnificent course, Monte La Reina, which will provide a great backdrop to this year's competition," added the Spanish athletics federation president José María Odriozola. The Monte La Reina circuit, which is around 11km from the city itself, is a flat parkland course which will delight runners with track speed and skills, especially as the long-range forecast is for dry weather, but is also in an area of natural beauty surrounded by wooded areas The event will be a showcase not just for the city and the surrounding province of Zamora, which is also supporting the Championships, both of whom are possibly best known to a wider audience for their excellent wines, but also for European distance running right the way across the age range. In the sad absence of Britain's reigning senior men's champion Mo Farah, owing to a recent groin injury, the spotlight will once again fall on the ever-green Ukrainian Sergiy Lebid who was the champion for five consecutive years before Farah ended his streak in San Giorgio su Legnano 12 months ago. "I'm very determined to regain my title and have been training very hard since the start of October to get ready for these Championships," said Lebid last week. "Last year in Italy, Farah ran extremely well and was a worthy winner but I suffered from stomach problems and was not able to give a good account of myself so I want to show people that I'm still a force to be reckoned on the European stage. "I have a great deal of affection for the event as I'm the only man to have run in all 13 of the previous Championships and I want to keep that streak going as long as possible," he added. There could be an unprecedented double if Lebid's compatriot Tetyana Holovchenko can retain the title she won last year. No country has ever taken both the individual senior men's and women's crowns at the same Championships.
Holovchenko improved her personal best times on the track for 5,000m and 10,000m during the summer and so will come to Toro in a confident frame of mind. Looking to challenge the Ukrainians will inevitably be members of the traditionally strong French, Spanish and Portuguese teams, as well as, in the case of the women especially, the Russians. Hungary's Barnabas Bene has proved himself to be an unbeatable force at the Championships in recent years, taking the Junior title in 2004 and 2005 before moving up to claim the U23 gold medal last year, but France's Noureddine Smail and Russia's Anatoliy Rybakov won the European U23 titles over 5,000m and 10,000m respectively on the track in the summer and could upset Bene's ambitions for a fourth successive win. The women's U23 race on paper looks to be wide open but perhaps one particular woman to look out for is The Netherlands' Susan Kuijken, who has decided to cross the Atlantic after finishing third in the high-class American collegiate Cross Country Championships earlier this month. The Junior races could also see triumphs from runners already well acquainted with winning. Dymtro Lashyn finished sixth in the Junior men's race last year but the young Ukrainian looked to have moved up a level when he was an impressive winner of the 2007 European Athletics Junior Championships 10,000m title and will start as the clear favourite to acquire his second gold medal this year. Another talented teenager is Britain's Stephanie Twell, who won the 2006 European Junior Cross Country gold medal. She is still only 18 but Norway's Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal, the silver medallist behind Twell in San Giorgio su Legnano and the European Athletics Junior Championships 3,000m Steeplechase winner last summer, is even younger by nearly a year and their rivalry could extend beyond Toro to 2008, when the SPAR European Cross Country Championships will be staged in the Belgian coastal town of Oostende. |
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