SPAR European Athletics Cross Country Championships News: Battocletti in, is Gressier?

LAGOA EURO CROSS NEWS

LAGOA (POR): The final entries for the 2025 SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa, Portugal on 14 December have been published. The SPAR European Cross Country Championships will be streamed live on the European Athletics website and will be accompanied by English-language commentary. In total, 644 athletes from 36 Member Federations are due to compete in this year’s edition, it will be the fourth time Portugal has staged the championships.

LAGOA (POR): Four of the six individual champions from 2024 are due to compete, including Nadia Battocletti in the senior women’s race. Innes FitzGerald and Will Barnicoat are aiming for their third successive titles in the women’s U20 and men’s U23 races respectively while last year’s U23 champion Phoebe Anderson moves up into the senior women’s race. The senior women’s line-up also includes Diane Van Es and Megan Keith, the silver and bronze medallists behind Battocletti in the 10,000m at the 2024 European Athletics Championships, and former four-time European cross country champion Yasemin Can from Türkiye. World 10,000m champion Jimmy Gressier is also on the entry-list although he is yet to confirm his participation.

ROME (ITA): Nadia Battocletti headlines Italy’s team for the European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa, Portugal on 14 December. Battocletti will be defending her individual and team titles in the senior women’s race. Italy has also named a strong mixed relay team including Sebastiano Parolini, Marta Zenoni and Pietro Arese who were all part of Italy’s gold medal-winning team last year. Italian marathon record-holder Yohanes Chiappinelli has been named in the senior men’s team.

DARMSTADT (GER): Germany has named a team of 28 athletes for the European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa, including Elena Burkard and Eva Dieterich in the senior women’s race. European U20 5000m bronze medallist Julia Ehrle is among their principal medal prospects in the U20 race.

LUXEMBOURG (LUX): Luxembourg will be represented by four athletes at the European Cross Country Championships including Ruben Querinjean in the senior race. Querinjean won U23 bronze in 2021 and recently topped Belgian nationals.