The 22nd edition of the European 10,000m Cup takes place one month today at the Parliament Hill Athletics Track in Hampstead Heath, north London on Saturday 19 May.
This year will be the first time Great Britain has staged the European 10,000m Cup - which first took place in Barakaldo, Spain in 1997 under its previous alias of the European 10,000m Challenge - although some very notable athletes from the host nation feature on the roll-of-honour.
After finishing second to Portugal’s former Olympic and world champion Fernanda Ribeiro on her 10,000m debut in 1998, Paula Radcliffe won the individual title the following season in Lisbon in 30:40.70 before regaining her title in 2001 in 30:55.80. Mo Farah won the individual men’s title in Marseille in 2010 in 27:28.86 as a precursor to his long distance double at the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona.
It's getting close!
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) April 19, 2018
Today marks one month to go until the European 10,000m Cup takes place at the Parliament Hill Athletics Track in London.
Who's going? https://t.co/D0bFK9yfYy pic.twitter.com/DVrTL7IKvQ
Last year’s event was held in warm and humid conditions in Minsk, Belarus. Antonio Abadia led Spain to a clean sweep of the medals - and the team title - in the men’s race in 28:31.16 while Portugal’s Sara Moreira won the individual title in the women’s race for a third time in 32:03.57. There was home success in the women’s race with runner-up Volha Mazuronak leading Belarus to the team title.
The men’s and women’s ‘A’ races will be staged at 8.30pm and 9.15pm respectively and the benign late evening conditions should help the athletes to challenge for the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships qualifying standards of 28:55 (men) and 33:20 (women). According to preliminary entries, 59 men and 57 women representing 29 Member Federations will be taking part in this year's event.
The most successful nations in championship history are Spain on the men’s side with nine individual and team titles apiece and Portugal on the women’s side with seven individual wins and 10 team titles.
The European 10,000m Cup takes place in conjunction with the highly popular Night of the 10,000m PBs which was first held in 2013. Some of the innovative elements to the fixture include the ‘lactic tunnel of and love’ and the spectators being able to watch the race from the track itself.
The programme also includes a series of club races, an inter schools relay and a VIP question and answer session featuring 2014 European 10,000m champion Jo Pavey.