Senior men's preview: Serhiy Lebid bids to get into double figures | 08.12.2011
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| Nine-time champion Serhiy Lebid of Ukraine will still be the man to beat at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Velenje on Sunday. |
The 36-year-old Ukrainian is arguably Europe's greatest ever cross country runner and he is the only athlete to have competed in every single SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
Last year in the Portuguese town of Albufeira, he took his astonishing tally of triumphs to nine victories in 17 Championships. He has also been in the medals on three other occasions.
“The SPAR European Cross Country Championships means a lot to me, it's a race which established my name more than 10 years ago. It will be a sad day when I can't run in it any longer so I want to keep being on the start line for as long as possible,” Lebid told www.european-athletics.org last month.
“I feel I still have a few more years left in my legs but, most importantly, I'm not just running (in Velenje) to keep my streak going. I wouldn't compete if I didn't think that I had good possibilities for a medal, even though every year there are new faces and tough opponents to contend with,” he added.
In similar fashion to recent years, Lebid has not had any races prior to the Championships and he has prepared for the event at home and also in the mountains in southern Russia.
Among the men trying to dethrone Lebid is Spain's Ayad Lamdassem, the silver medallist from 12 months ago, who showed that he is in excellent form again when he finished second in a very strong international field at the 18th Cross Internacional de Soria in Spain on 21 November.
Lamdassem's team mate Javier Guerra was the second Spaniard home in Soria, crossing the line in fourth place, and his form suggests he'll do a lot better than his modest 41st place in Albufeira.
France, the 2010 senior men's team gold medallists, are again sending a powerful squad which contains Abdellatif Meftah and 2007 junior champion Morhad Amdouni, who were fourth and fifth last year, as well as the 2010 under 23 champion Hassan Chahdi.
Chadhi was the best Frenchman in local races last month and came home third in the high quality Le Maine Libre cross country race in Allones on 20 November.
Mokhtar Benhari and Denis Mayaud from last year's victorious team also return for Les Bleus.
Portugal's senior men won team silver medals last year but this year's team has few familiar faces in it to a foreign observer with only Jose Rocha, sixth in 2009, remaining from the six men on the start line in 2010.
However, the man in form in Portuguese races this winter has been Thiago Costa, 10th as a junior in 2007 and seventh in the under 23 race last year, and he'll be looking for another top 10 place at the SPAR European Cross country Championships
Portugal's runners will also be spurred on by the fact that Velenje has been a hospitable host to them in the past. When Velenje last staged the Championships in 1999, their compatriots Paulo Guerra and Eduardo Henriques came home first and second in the senior men's race.
Great Britain's Andy Vernon, an individual under 23 medallist in 2007 and 2008 was disappointed to drop out last year in Albufeira and will be looking to make amends this time around with a good showing to follow on from his emphatic victory at the UK Trials last month.
The Aviva Great Britain & Northern Ireland senior men’s team also includes the well-known 1500m runner Andy Baddeley, who has made a succession of Olympic, world and European finals on the track.
Like Vernon, Italy's Stefano La Rosa failed to finish in Albufeira and has something to prove in Velenje. He has been in good form this winter, winning the Cross Della Volpe in Volpiano on 13 November, and La Rosa is aiming for his first top 10 finish as a senior following on from his 10th and fifth places in the 2006 and 2007 under 23 races.
Two Ethiopian-born runners could also make an impact for their adopted European countries after a pair of impressive victories last month.
Belgium's Atelaw Bekele, the 2009 SPAR European Cross Country Championships under 23 bronze medallist, cruised to victory on home soil at the European Athletics Cross Country Permit Race in Roeselare on 27 November while Norway's Urige Buta won the Nordic cross country championship in Uddevalla, Sweden, on 12 November.
The leading name in the German men's team is steeplechaser Steffen Uliczka, who finished 12th in Albufeira 12 months ago but may find the anticipated heavier conditions in Velenje more to his liking.
There will also be huge interest in how Slovenia's Mitja Kosovelj, who won the 2011 World Long Distance Mountain Running Challenge in June, performs in front of his home crowd and he will certainly not lack support.
Regarding the team competition, 10 nations will be sending four or more runners and so potentially can have a scoring quartet.
France is the favourite to retain its title but behind them the competition should be fierce for the other medals between last year's silver and bronze medallists Portugal and Spain, the latter having taken the gold medals for three consecutive years from 2007-2009, as well as Great Britain.
Britain is looking to be back among the medals after missing out on the podium in 2010.
Italy, the 2009 bronze medallists, also have a shot at the medals again but are perhaps the outsiders of the five leading nations in the senior men's race.
