The 2021 SPAR European Cross Country Championships, an overview…

Eamoon Coglan, “Chairman of the Boards”, and 1979 team member, Irish XC (Treacy won that year!), with Marton Gyulai/ Budapest 2023, giving awards, photo by EA Athletics

The 2021 SPAR European Cross Country Championships were held in Dublin-Fingal on 12 December 2021. By all accounts, it was a huge success. This is Stuart Weir’s second piece on the EA Cross Country.

Ireland, the hosts, had a fantastic day! From the world of @twitter, courtesy of @irishathletics

SPAR European Cross Country Championships, from @twitter

The SPAR European Cross Country Championships held in Dublin, Ireland were a triumph for Norway with Jakob Ingebrigtsen winning the men’s senior title and Bjerkeli Grovdal the women’s.

Jakob who won in 30:15 by more than 100 metres from Kaya (30:29) and Gressier (30:34) and add senior gold to his four U20 titles between 2016 and 2019, commented: “It felt really good but I have to admit 10K is not the best distance for me. At the same time we do a lot of similar training to these sorts of races in our normal weeks, but you are always thinking about the worst case scenario.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen pushing the pace, 2021 EA Cross Country, photo by European Athletics

“There is a lot of mud here, it is a tough race, a long race with a lot of good competitors this year,” said Ingebrigtsen who also acknowledged the role of the crowd just over four months after landing Olympic gold in a near-deserted stadium in Tokyo. “The crowd was crazy and they really helped us, so I´m really happy there were lots of spectators here today!”

Meraf Bahta and Karoline Groval, 2021 EA Cross Country Championships, photo by European Athletics

For Grovdal, it was a fifth medal but her first gold as she explained: “I have won so many bronze and silver medals at European level – both on the track and in cross country – so for me to take the gold today means a lot. I am so happy for having been able to do that. It was not only until the last lap that I realised that I would be able to take the win.”

Twitter videos

Women’ finish
https://twitter.com/i/status/1470040836180226056

Senior Men
https://twitter.com/i/status/1470029888954548227

Results

Men’s senior

1 Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Norway
2 Aras Kaya, Turkey
3 Jimmy Gressier, France

Women’s senior

1 Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal, Norway
2 Meraf Bahta, Sweden
3 Alina Reh, Germany

Men Under 20

1 Axel Vang Christensen, Denmark
2 Abdullahi Dahir Rabi, Norway
3 Joel Lilleso, Denmark

Women Under 20

1 Megan Keith, GBR
2 Ingeborg Ostgard, Norway
3 Emma Heckel, Germany

Men Under 23

1 Charles Hicks, GBR
2 Darragh McElhinney, Ireland
3 Ruben Querinjean, Luxembourg

Women Under 23

1 Nadia Barroclett, Italy
2 Klara Lukan, Solvenia
3 Mariana Machado, Portugal

Mixed Relay

1 GBR
2 France
3 Belgium

Medal Table