France has a glorious tradition in cross country running but until Yann Schrub crossed the line in Brussels on Sunday (10), Les Bleus had never had a continental senior men’s champion.
However, the 2022 European Athletics Championships 10,000m bronze medallist – considered a candidate for a medal after his seventh place 12 months ago and fine performances on the track this summer including being the first European home in the World Athletics Championships 10,000m – started to put daylight between himself and his rivals towards the end of the fourth of six laps and was never headed.
Schrub crossed the line after 9km of running over the challenging – to say the least – and muddy course around Laeken Park, which was deteriorating after six previous races, in 30:17, three seconds ahead of the inspired Norwegian silver medallist Magnus Tuv Myhre with Belgium’s Robin Hendrix just two seconds further back.
It was Great Britain’s triathlon international Hugo Milner who pushed the pace over the first two 1500m laps as he went through 3000m in 9:47, accompanied closely by Schrub, his French compatriot and 2022 sixth-placer Bastien Augusto and Tuv Myhre.
As Augusto slipped back, the other three continued to duel for the next two laps with Milner still leading after four laps, passed in 20:05.
However, Schrub seized his chance just after he saw the two laps to go counter and pushed hard, leaving his rivals to try to respond in the quagmire.
Schrub was certainly not gliding over the mud but undoubtably coping best with the conditions as Milner tried to hang on to second place.
Into the bargain, the noise around the course was ramping up as it was becoming clearer that home nation Belgium, with three in the top 10 were in with a strong chance of taking team gold helped by Robin Hendrix coming to get up on the should of Tuv Myhre in the battle for third place.
Unfortunately for Milner, he ran out of steam about a kilometre from the finish and saw Tuv Myhre and Hendrix come past him.
With Schrub clear and almost home – still having enough to spare to grab a French flag from the crowd just over 100 metres from the line, the Norwegian won the battle for the silver to compensate massively for the injury-induced absence of two-time defending champion and European Athlete of the Year Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
"It was an incredible experience. I had extraordinary legs today. I prepared really well, even if we didn't focus on this championship. My legs were amazing from the beginning till the end. In the beginning I found myself in the lead and thought that this is not where I am supposed to be and thought that the others would come back," reflected the winner.
"Two laps from the finish, I realised that it wouldn't happen. I pushed a little extra to increase my lead. Tonight I will celebrate with my 40 friends and family who have come all the way to cheer me on," added Schrub.
Hendrix came home for third but with teammates John Heymans in sixth and Isaac Kimeli in 11th, the roof was raised later in the afternoon when the host nation climbed to the top of the podium to collect their team gold medals in the last presentation of the day and hear La Brabançonne – the Belgian national anthem – played for the first time at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships since Kimeli won the men’s U23 title in 2016.
France took second place in the team competition while Norway were third, thanks not only Myhre but with Henrik Ingebrigtsen in 12th, the latter finishing one place in front of Italy’s reigning European 10,000m champion Yemaneberhan Crippa.
Phil Minshull for European Athletics