Alemayehu Bezabeh of Spanish club Bikila Toledo produced a superb run to win the senior men's race at the European Champion Clubs Cup Cross Country in Bilbao on Sunday.

All points of the continental compass were represented among the gold medallists at the 2010 European Champion Clubs Cup Cross Country in Bilbao.

Spain won the senior men's individual and team titles, Russia's Sports Club Luch Moscow  took both women's team competitions and Turkish athletes romping to three individual victories as well as the junior men's team crown.

Senior men (10,030m)
The reigning European men's Cross Country champion Alemayehu Bezabeh was the favourite in the Basque city and he didn't disappoint the home crowd who had been waiting patiently for a Spanish victory during the three previous races.

After an early stint at the front from the Serbian runner Mirko Petrovic over the first 1200m, Bezabeh and Ayad Lamdassem, who was fifth at the 2009 European Cross Country Championships in Dublin, broke away from the field before the end of the first of five big laps of nearly two kilometres around Bilbao's Parque de Etxebarria.

The pair from Spain's Bikila Toledo club were also part of Spain's victorious senior men's team in Dublin and worked together throughout the rest of the race after quickly putting 30 metres between themselves and their nearest rivals.

Behind them, the Czech Republic-based Tanzanian Pascal Mombo Sarwat, running for AK Kroměříž, was having a good run and didn't allow the Spanish pair to disappear into the distance but there was no denying the fact that only a disaster would stop them finishing in the first two places.

The two Spaniards extended their lead to 50 metres on the third lap before settling into a comfortable rhythm. They came down the home straight holding hands before Bezabeh untangled himself from his team mate in the final metre to take the win in 32.19 and retain his individual title in the event after winning in Istanbul 12 months ago.

"Once Ayad and I looked at the field we decided that there was unlikely to be anyone who would cause us too many problems. We decided to work together to control the race at the front. Ayad had a bit of a chest cold during the last week and I got spiked in my right ankle early in the race, so we could have pushed harder if we had needed," said Bezabeh after the race, confirming the victory was as easy as it looked.

Landassem finished nominally one second in arrears while third place went to the evergreen Italian Grabriele De Nard, another eight seconds further back, after Sarwat admitted he was confused about 80 metres from the line,  thinking he had one more lap to go, and the lapse in concentration allowed De Nard to go past him.

Good running from Bezabeh's colleague, Ivan Galan and Antonio Nunez, who moved up well in the second half of the race meant Bikila Toledo gave the home crowd a second chance to cheer a Spanish win, with them tallying 36 points to just edge out De Nard's Fiamme Gialle squad by six points.

Senior women (6250m)

Norway's Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal had to settle with the third place in the senior women's race.

Like with the senior men, two athletes from the same club dominated the race at the front, with 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships 3000m gold medallist Alemitu Bekele sprinting away from her team mate Belaynesh Olijera 200m from the line.

Bekele clocked 21.38 over the increasingly muddy but relatively flat course, although the predicted rain thankfully stayed away, to follow in the footsteps of Bezabeh and win her Cup race for the second year running.

The Turkish pair were accompanied through the first kilometre by Norway's Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal, but the 2009 European Athletics Rising Star of the Year, soon had to let the leading pair go and was immersed in a duel for third place with another Turkish athlete Asli Cakir for the rest of the race before pulling away from the final place on the podium over the last kilometre.

"The two Turkish girls were too good for me, I quickly realised that," admitted Grøvdal, the 2009 SPAR European Cross Country Championships junior women's gold medallist.

Uskudar Belediyesi Spor Kulubu coaches and supporters might have thought that they were well on their way to retaining their senior women's title but they had to wait until Birgil Ozcan crossed the line in 45^th place before they completed their scoring quartet. 

Meanwhile, 2006 Cup winners Sport Club Luch Moscow, lead home by the 2008 individual Cup winner Maria Konovalova in seventh place, had managed to pack their four women into the top 19 and totalled 51 points to snatch the trophy from the Turkish club by one point.

Junior men (6250m)
As predicted, the junior men's race turned principally into a duel between runners from the two Turkish clubs who made the trip, reigning champions Fenerbahce Spor Kulubu and Erzurum Türktelekom Spor Kulübü, who had taken the title on the three previous occasions since the race was inaugurated in 2006.

Muhammet Tan, from Fenerbahce, started to open a gap between himself and his main rival Hakan Cecen by the halfway point and came home in 20:53, 13 seconds clear of the Erzurum Türktelekom runner.

Fenerbahce comfortably retained their junior men's team title with just 18 points, getting their four scorers in the top eight home.

Junior women (4360m)
After six women went through 2500m together, Turkey's Esma Aydemir, from Kayseri Seker Spor Kulübü, made her bid for victory just over a kilometre from the end and the leading group quickly disintegrated.

Aydemir came home in 16:31 with Russia's Viktoriya Ivanova improving from 16^th last year in Istanbul to get second place in Bilbao, just three seconds behind Aydemir although the margin was deceptive as the Turkish runner relaxed with the line in sight and Ivanova had to work hard to hold off her friend and training partner Evdokia Bukina.

The Russian girls club SC Luch Moscow made a late decision to defend their junior women's team title and it proved wise as they got all four scorers in the top 10 to total 23 points and beat Kayseri Seker by 20 points.

Click here for complete results.