2010 European Cross Country Championships


The 2010 European Cross Country Championships was a continental cross country running competition that took place on 12 December in Albufeira, Portugal. It was the second time that the country hosted the event, building upon the 1997 edition held in Oeiras.
Serhiy Lebid won the men's race for his ninth victory of the championship – a record for the competition. France took the men's team title. Jessica Augusto comprehensively won the women's race for the host nation and also led the Portuguese team to a team gold medal. At total of 468 athletes from a record number of 34 nations competed at the event.

Competition

Preparation

The race took place on a purpose-built course near the city, which also hosts the annual Almond Blossom Cross Country. Albufeira was chosen as the host at the 120th European Athletics Council Meeting in October 2008, defeating a rival bid from Velenje.
Hayley Yelling entered the race as the defending women's champion while Alemayehu Bezabeh, the reigning men's champion, did not take part in the competition. High-profile investigations into doping in Spain immediately preceded the championships and Bezabeh was among the athletes implicated in Operación Galgo. As both the reigning champion and the 2009 silver medallist Mo Farah were absent, the men's race was seen as a relatively open competition, with Ukrainian Serhiy Lebid, Spanish runners Ayad Lamdassem and Jesús España being the foremost protagonists. The withdrawal of Rosa Morató left Jessica Augusto as the provisional favourite for the women's race. Forming a strong team, three other Portuguese runners were expected to challenge for medals, as were Yelling and Adriënne Herzog, who was third the previous year.

Races

The men's race remained relatively tight until the final lap. Six men were on equal footing at the bell: Lebid, Lamdassem, French duo Morhad Amdouni and Abdellatif Meftah, and Rui Pedro Silva and Yousef El Kalai, both representing the hosts. Lamdassem was the first to move away from the pack, seizing the lead, and only Lebid followed. The Ukrainian overhauled Lamdassem in the final stages and maintained a clear lead to win his ninth title – a record for the competition. Lamdassem just held off a late sprint from El Kalai to take the runner-up spot. Meftah and Amdouni finished shortly after for fourth and fifth, leading the French men to a team victory.
Jessica Augusto made her gold medal intentions known as she took the lead in the opening stages. The Portuguese athlete never relinquished the position and produced a largely unrivalled, solo performance. Spaniard Alessandra Aguilar shadowed her in the middle part of the race but later dropped out of contention. With Augusto clear in front, Binnaz Uslu, Ana Dulce Félix, Fionnuala Britton and Tetyana Holovchenko battled for the minor medals in the second half of the race. Félix and Uslu fought for the runner-up spot with the Turk eventually winning out. Augusto's lead was so significant that she slowed and celebrated throughout the home straight, still crossing the line with a five-second advantage. Félix took the bronze just ahead Britton, helping the Portuguese women to the team gold medal, and Holovchenko rounded out the top five.
Hassan Chahdi of France took the men's under-23 title while Ethiopian-born Meryem Erdoğan won the women's under-23 section for Turkey. The junior races were won by Abdelaziz Merzougui and Charlotte Purdue.

Race results

Senior men

RankAthleteCountryTime
Serhiy Lebid29:15
Ayad Lamdassem29:18
Yousef El Kalai29:19
4Abdellatif Meftah29:21
5Morhad Amdouni29:21
6Andrea Lalli29:28
7Eduardo Mbengani29:29
8Rui Pedro Silva29:32
9Jesús España29:32
10Mokhtar Benhari29:34
11Yevgeniy Rybakov29:35
12Steffen Uliczka29:36

was eighth and earned a team silver with Portugal.
RankTeamPoints

Meftah
Amdouni
Benhari
Driss El Himer
33

El Kalai
Mbengani
Rui Pedro Silva
Rui Silva
35

Lamdassem
España
Ricardo Serrano
Francisco Javier López
58
496
599
6106
7142
8181

RankAthleteCountryTime
Jéssica Augusto26:52
Binnaz Uslu26:57
Ana Dulce Félix26:59
4Fionnuala Britton26:59
5Tetyana Holovchenko27:04
6Marisa Barros27:06
7Hatti Dean27:08
8Alessandra Aguilar27:09
9Sara Moreira27:26
10Ana Dias27:27
11Fatiha Klilech-Fauvel27:27
12Maria Sig Møller27:31

.
RankTeamPoints

Augusto
Félix
Barros
Moreira
19

Dean
Louise Damen
Stephanie Twell
Helen Clitheroe
65

Aguilar
Diana Martín
Nuria Fernández
Irene Pelayo
72
479
5101
6132
7147

RankTeamPoints

McCarthy
Brendan O'Neill
Michael Mulhare
David Rooney
60

Chahdi
Carvalho
Abdelatif Hadjam
Etienne Diemunsch
78

Martos
Antonia Abadía
Javier García
Víctor Corrales
79
4104
5112
6114
7133
8134

RankAthleteCountryTime
Meryem Erdoğan20:08
Cristina Jordán20:17
Emma Pallant20:28
4Ganna Nosenko20:36
5Roxana Birca20:39
6Sandra Eriksson20:41
7Nathalie Gray20:43
8Viktoriya Pogorielska20:46
9Yektarina Gorbunova20:46
10Lucie Sekanová20:47
11Patricia Laubertie20:47
12Natalya Vlasova20:47

RankTeamPoints

Pallant
Gray
Emily Pidgeon
Sarah Waldron
47

Gorbunova
Vlasova
Lyudmila Lebedeva
Alfiya Khasanova
49

Nosenko
Pogorielska
Olga Skrypak
Lyudmyla Kovalenko
65
494
5107
6117
7118
8194

RankTeamPoints

Saunders
Jonathan Hay
John McDonnell
Andrew Combs
62

Pinto
Emanuel Rolim
José Costa
Nuno Santos
74

Rusakov
Victor Saenko
Ilgizar Safiulin
Nikolai Lialikov
85
488
5120
6130
7145
8155

RankAthleteCountryTime
Charlotte Purdue12:42
Amela Terzić12:59
Emelia Gorecka13:00
4Gulshat Fazlitdinova13:03
5Corrina Harrer13:08
6Zenobie Vangansbeke13:09
7Ciara Mageean13:16
8Ioana Doaga13:18
9Lily Partridge13:19
10Annabel Gummow13:19
11Gesa Krause13:22
12Kate Avery13:24

RankTeamPoints

Purdue
Gorecka
Partridge
Gummow
23

Harrer
Krause
Maya Rehberg
Jannika John
53

Doaga
Mirela Lavric
Anca Maria Bunea
Dana Elena Login
64
499
5103
6128
7149
8165