Sergiy Lebid bites his seventh European XC gold (© Hasse Sjögren)
If there was any doubt that Sergiy Lebid is still the continent’s king of cross country, he dispelled them immediately after unleashing his trademark kick with 300m to go to secure his seventh overall European title at the 14th SPAR European Cross Country Championships held today for the first time on Spanish soil.
In doing so, the 32-year-old Ukrainian has now won exactly half of the titles which have ever been at stake, as he has succeeded seven times in the 14-year-history of the event. He also became today the only athlete – man or woman – to have contested all editions.
“Today’s win has not been as straightforward as it might seem,” confirmed Lebid who finished with a nine second margin over runner-up Sweden’s Mustafa Mohamed.
“I guess that the race has been rather strange for everybody as no-one wanted to set the pace in the early and mid-stages of the race. Maybe it was due to the annoying wind and that’s the reason why the pace slowed down whenever we entered the home-straight. Anyway I am terribly happy as I have regained the gold medal after last year’s defeat. Definitely, these are my Championships,” said Lebid with an open smile.
As has become tradition, Lebid was making his cross country debut this season and explained: “As usual, I have built up for this event in Kislovodosk but I wouldn’t say that the Caucasus Mountains are the main reason for my success.”
Waiting for the precise moment to kick
Whether it was the wind or the three artificial barriers laid down in each 1.5km lap, the race opened very cautiously with successive splits of 4:31, 4:30 and 4:30 per loop and so there were there were no less than 26 men still in contention by the sixth kilometre point!
The leading pack stepped up the pace slightly in the following lap (4:26) but nothing remarkable happened until exactly the eighth kilometre. It was then, with the clock reading 24 minutes, that Lebid tried to pull away with a brisk change of speed and he was successful except that he did not drop Sweden’s top 3000m steeplechaser Mustafa Mohamed and Spain’s Chema Martínez, who was obviously cheered by the home crowd.
Backed by the excited supporters the reigning European 10,000m silver medallist tried to no avail to leave Lebid and Mohamed behind.
At the bell (4:20 for the lap) the leading trio was 40m ahead of another group which included Ireland’s Martin Fagan, Spain’s Jesús España, Portugal’s Rui Silva and Sweden’s Erik Sjöqvist.
Mohamed, who was third last year, then made what seemed a lethal turn of pace with 1000m left and only Lebid could live with his pace while Marínez began to fade.
The final kilometre was full of excitement as Mohamed did his best to shake off Lebid but he couldn’t manage it. By then Olympic 1500m medallist Rui Silva had caught Martínez in the fight for the bronze medal and the only question remaining was to find out the winner’s identity.
Lebid made the decisive move with 300m to go, Mohamed could not respond and the Ukrainian romped home in 31:47 for the 10.7km course and a nine-second advantage over Mohamed, who improved on his bronze medal from 2006. Silva took third two seconds behind and a fast-finishing Sjöqvist passed Martínez to claim fourth.
Spain takes team prize
The team competition was dominated by host nation Spain, its fourth gold in history and the first since 2002. Backed by Martínez’s fifth place and Jesús España’s sixth position the Spaniards scored 33 points well ahead of Portugal (64), while the bronze went for France (75) in a tight contest with Great Britain (81) and Sweden (83).
Under-23 Race: Koyuncu beats pre-race favourites
Turkey’s Kemal Koyuncu can arguably be regarded as the most surprising winner of the whole Championships. Despite being an European U-23 10,000 bronze medallist all the talking on the eve of the race was about the Russian twin Rybakov brothers. With a slew of medallists from recent years competing – even in the absence of Hungary’s reigning champion Barnabas Bene – this race proved to be the most competitive of the day's six races.
Midway in the penultimate lap, with 17 minutes on the clock Koyuncu broke away with ease from the leading pack and only former 2002 and 2003 European Junior champion Yevgeniy Rybakov and Britain’s Andy Vernon could partially match his speed with the Turk buildingf a comfortable seven-second margin by the bell.
The last lap was full of interest as the fierce battle between Rybakov and Vernon – a bronze medallist as a junior two years ago – seemed to threaten Koyuncu’s lead for a while but the latter did not relinquish and came home on top spot to claim the first ever medal by a male Turkish athlete in the history of the competition.
Koyuncu’s winning time for the 8.2km contest was 24:31, having created a two second margin over Rybakov, who kept Vernon at bay in the closing stages and took silver another two seconds ahead of the powerful-legged Briton.
Both Great Britain and Poland scored 52 points and so the team outcome could only be decided by virtue of Britain’s 4th athlete's better position as 2003 European Junior 1500 silver medallist Tom Lancashire finished 19th to edge the last Polish athlete to score who came 22nd. Last year’s winners Russia took a comfortable third (65 points) well ahead of Turkey (101), whose individual win was not enough to help the team mount the podium.
Junior Race: Amdouni leads a double French
The junior event was billed as a thrilling encounter between Ukraine's Dmytro Lashyn and France’s Mourad Amdouni, the reigning European Junior 10,000 and 5000m champions, respectively. These two really lived up to those expectations but the surprise factor in the guise of Amdouni’s countryman Florian Carvalho, an 800m specialist on the track who just missed the bronze medal by a place at last summer’s Europeans in Hengelo.
At the halfway point of the 6.7km race that triumvirate alongside Spain’s reigning European Junior 5000m silver medallist Mohamed Elbendir was setting the pace with successive laps in the 4:28-4:32 range which had left the rest of the field well behind.
Elbendir started to fade before the bell (1.5km left) and the French pair made a great team job over the final lap as they managed to run away from Lashyn midway. The closing stages witnessed Amdouni’s final burst of speed to beat Carvalho by three seconds (20:08/20:11) while the Ukrainian had to settle for third another five seconds behind. The British duo of David Forrester and Lee Carey followed next helping to give their country the silver medal with 48 points. An excellent scoring of 29 points gave France it’s first-ever win in this category, while Germany took third (57).
Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF
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On the path to Edinburgh 2008
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