2009 European Cross Country Championships

The 2009 European Cross Country Championships was a continental cross country running competition that was held on 13 December 2009 near Dublin city, Fingal in Ireland. Dublin was selected as the host city in 2007 and the event was the first time that a major European athletics championships took place in Ireland. The six men's and women's races in the championship programme took place in Santry Demense on a looped course with flat and grassy ground. The 16th edition of the European Cross Country Championships featured 323 athletes from 30 nations.

2009 European Cross Country Championships
Organisers	EAA
Edition	16th
Date	13 December
Host city	Dublin, Ireland
Venue	Santry Demesne
Events	6
Distances	9997 m – Men 8018 m – Women 8018 m – U23 men 6039 m – U23 women 6039 m – Junior men 4039 m – Junior women
Participation	323 athletes from 30 nations
Official website	dublin2009.ie
← 2008 Brussels 2010 Albufeira →

Alemayehu Bezabeh upset the defending champion (Serhiy Lebid) to win the men's senior race: it was his first medal at a major international competition and he was the first Spanish runner to win in the history of the championships. In the women's senior competition, Hayley Yelling was a surprise winner, having come out of her competitive retirement just weeks before the race. The much favoured Portuguese team (which included Jessica Augusto and Inês Monteiro) did not reach the individual podium but they took the gold in the team competition.

Noureddine Smaïl and Hassan Chahdi took gold and silver in the men's under-23 competition, leading the French to a team victory. Jeroen D'Hoedt was the winner of the men's junior race. Sultan Haydar won the women's under-23 race while Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal added to her junior honours with a gold in the women's junior race, becoming the first Norwegian gold medallist of the championships' history.

Almost 7000 spectators attended the championships and, in Europe, it was broadcast live on television for free by RTÉ, the Irish state broadcaster.

Bidding

The championship course was next to Morton Stadium.

Ireland's bid for the competition was first discussed in 2006 when Liam Hennessy, president of Athletics Ireland, proposed the idea at the European Athletics conference that year. After the proposal had gained the support of the Athletics Ireland board, Fingal County Council and the Irish Sports Council, the state broadcaster (RTÉ) agreed to show the event live on television for free across Europe.[1]

The bidding process concluded in October 2007 at a presentation to the European Athletics Association in Malta. The Irish bid to host the championships was led by Mary Coghlan (Chair of Finance & Risk AAI), Senan Turnbull (Fingal Council's director of community, culture and sports), Liam Hennessy (President of AAI), Paddy Marlay (Competition Committee of AAI) and beat proposals from France and Poland. Ireland had hosted the World Cross Country Championships in 1979 and 2002, but this was the first time that Ireland had ever hosted a major European athletics competition.[1]

Course

The reigning women's champion, Hilda Kibet, did not defend her title.

The course was situated in Santry Demense Park adjacent the national track and field stadium, Morton Stadium, which is the home stadium for Clonliffe Harriers – the oldest athletics club in Ireland.[2] The course's looped design allowed for races of varying lengths through the use of laps. The four race lengths were: 9,997 metres (6.212 mi) for the senior men's race, 8,018 metres (4.982 mi) for the senior women's and men's under-23 competitions, 6,039 metres (3.752 mi) for the under-23 women and junior men, and finally 4,039 metres (2.510 mi) for the women's junior race. The ground of the course was grassy throughout and, while it did contain some slight dips and uphills, it did not feature any severe obstacles or inclines.[3]

Competition

Prior to the championships, eight-time gold medal winner Serhiy Lebid was the favourite for the men's race, with Great Britain's Mo Farah representing the greatest challenge to him. For the women's race, reigning champion Hilda Kibet had decided not to compete. This left the women's senior competition without a clear favourite: Portugal's Jessica Augusto and Inês Monteiro, along with former champions Hayley Yelling and Tetyana Holovchenko, comprised the likely medallists, while Mary Cullen was the home favourite.[4][5]

On the day of the race, an estimated 7000 spectators were in attendance and a total of 323 athletes represented 30 European nations.[6] Although the championships only accepts athletes who are citizens of European countries, African-born athletes were highly represented among those who reached the podium: Ethiopian-born runners Alemayehu Bezabeh and Sultan Haydar Sultan, and Algerian-born Noureddine Smaïl all took gold medals, while Atelaw Yeshetela and Somalian-born athlete Mo Farah won minor medals.[7][8]

Men's race

There was a slow start to the men's senior race, with a large leading pack reaching the 2.5 km mark. However, soon after that point, Mo Farah made clear his intention to win the race, increasing the pace and accelerating away from the pack. He remained the leader for the first half of the race, with Alemayehu Bezabeh following closely and Lebid a little further behind.[9] Bezabeh, competing in only his second European championships, overtook Farah in the fourth lap and began to create a lead for himself. Farah made ground on the leader in the final lap, but he tired towards the end. Bezabeh went on to win his first major title, becoming the first Spaniard to win the championships.[7]

Coming in second place, Farah collapsed after the finish line and missed the medal ceremony as he received medical assistance. Although ahead of the rest of the pack, Lebid was a clear third and was some way off the two frontrunners[9] – an injury two weeks prior to the race had affected his preparations and he was pleased to receive the bronze medal. Spanish runners Sergio Sánchez and Ayad Lamdassem took fourth and fifth places, all but guaranteeing Spain the men's team gold medal.[7]

Hayley Yelling, the 2004 champion, won the women's senior race.

Women's race

The women's senior race also had an unexpected winner: Hayley Yelling of Great Britain (the 2004 championships winner) had retired from athletics after a poor showing at the 2008 European Cross Country Championships,[10] but she returned to competition in December 2009 with a win at the British selection race for that year's race.[11]

Yelling started with a quick pace, rapidly building up a lead over the pack of runners in the early stages of the race.[12] During the second lap, the Portuguese runners, along with Rosa María Morató and Adriënne Herzog, remained in pursuit but Ireland's Mary Cullen had faded behind.[13] Yelling, still leading, maintained her fast speed after the halfway point while Augusto and Morató filled out the medalling positions.[12] Morató pulled away from Augusto, but never managed to make up the six-second gap between her and Yelling. The Briton took the gold medal and Morató was next to come in, receiving the silver medal. Meanwhile, Herzog overtook a tired Jessica Augusto for the bronze.[13] Augusto, Monteiro, and Ana Dulce Félix of Portugal filled out the top six finishers; although they had failed to reach the individual podium, the trio and tenth-placed Sara Moreira won the team gold medals by a significant margin.[12]

Under-23 and junior races

In the men's under-23 race, there was a large group of runners at the front up until the 3.5 km mark, at which point a pack of three runners led the race throughout: Atelaw Yeshetela of Belgium, and Hassan Chahdi and Noureddine Smaïl of France.[14] The three took turns in leading the race and remained close. However, in the final lap, Smaïl broke away from the other two runners and was unchallenged at the finish line,[7] proving his abilities after a disappointing race in 2008.[14] Chahdi was the silver medallist and Yeshetela took third place, while Frenchman Florian Carvalho was fourth,[7] setting up France as the team gold medallists of the race. Great Britain and Belgium took the team silver and bronze respectively.[14]

As she had done in the previous year's competition, Sultan Haydar of Turkey took the lead early on in the women's under-23 competition.[8] By the halfway mark she was thirteen seconds clear of the other runners, but her pace started to slow. Irina Sergeyeva quickly reduced the Turkish runner's lead and on the final lap she threatened to take first place.[13] However, Sergeyeva was beaten by Haydar's sprint finish in the final home straight. Jessica Sparke took the bronze, and her teammates Charlotte Browning and Hollie Rowland followed shortly after to continue Great Britain's unbeaten run of gold medals in the women's under-23 team competition.[8]

In the junior races, Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal became the first Norwegian to win at the European Championships.[13] The European Junior Champion quickly took control of the women's race and managed to hold off Gulshat Fazlitdinova to win the title. Kate Avery was the bronze medallist in the individual race, and Russia, Great Britain and Germany were the team medallists.[15] Grøvdal's compatriot Sondre Nordstad Moen failed to make it a junior double for Norway in the men's race. Moen led the race for the first three laps with a comfortable pace, but Jeroen D'Hoedt pulled ahead for the final lap.[7] Nick Goolab made up significant ground to pip teammate James Wilkinson for the silver at the finish line. Moen ended up fourth, but he won a team bronze with Norway. Britain and France won the gold and silver team medals, respectively.[16]

Race results

Men's senior

Alemayehu Bezabeh became the first Spanish man to win at the championships.

The 2008 silver medallist Mo Farah finished again in second place.

Eight-time champion Serhiy Lebid managed only bronze in 2009.

Individual race

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time (m:s)
	Alemayehu Bezabeh	Spain	30:45
	Mo Farah	United Kingdom	31:02
	Serhiy Lebid	Ukraine	31:17
4	Sergio Sánchez	Spain	31:26
5	Ayad Lamdassem	Spain	31:30
6	José Rocha	Portugal	31:34
7	Eduard Mbengani	Portugal	31:41
8	Mark Kenneally	Ireland	31:42
9	Daniele Meucci	Italy	31:42
10	Stéphane Joly	Switzerland	31:46
11	Driss El Himer	France	31:54
12	Andy Vernon	United Kingdom	31:54
13	Michael Skinner	United Kingdom	31:54
14	Licínio Pimentel	Portugal	31:54

Team race

Rank	Team	Points
	Spain Alemayehu Bezabeh Sergio Sánchez Ayad Lamdassem Francisco Javier López	34
	United Kingdom Mo Farah Andy Vernon Michael Skinner Benedict Whitby	54
	Italy Daniele Meucci Stefano La Rosa Andrea Lalli Gabriele De Nard Gianmarco Buttazzo Martin Dematteis[17]	62
4	France	67
5	Portugal	73
6	Ireland	115
7	Belgium	146
8	Germany	149

• Note: Scores are calculated by combining the finishing positions of a country's top four athletes. The country with the lowest cumulative score wins.
• Totals: 67 entrants, 65 starters, 62 finishers, 10 teams

Women's senior

Adriënne Herzog of the Netherlands took the bronze in the senior women's competition.

Individual race

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time (m:s)
	Hayley Yelling	United Kingdom	27:49
	Rosa María Morató	Spain	27:56
	Adriënne Herzog	Netherlands	28:04
4	Jessica Augusto	Portugal	28:11
5	Inês Monteiro	Portugal	28:14
6	Ana Dulce Félix	Portugal	28:19
7	Olivera Jevtic	Serbia	28:21
8	Tetyana Holovchenko	Ukraine	28:25
9	Freya Murray	United Kingdom	28:25
10	Sara Moreira	Portugal	28:32
11	Fionnuala Britton	Ireland	28:39
12	Mary Cullen	Ireland	28:45

Inês Monteiro helped Portugal to the team gold.

Team race

Rank	Team	Points
	Portugal Jessica Augusto Inês Monteiro Ana Dulce Félix Sara Moreira	25
	United Kingdom Hayley Yelling Freya Murray Katrina Wootton Sonia Samuels	51
	Spain Rosa María Morató Iris María Fuentes-Pila Alessandra Aguilar Nuria Fernández	58
4	Ireland	82
5	Italy	130
6	France	103
7	Sweden	141
8	Germany	161

• Totals: 53 entrants, 51 starters, 50 finishers, 8 teams

Men's under-23

Noureddine Smaïl of France won his first major U-23 cross country competition.

Individual race

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time (m:s)
	Noureddine Smaïl	France	25:11
	Hassan Chahdi	France	25:17
	Atelaw Yeshetela	Belgium	25:21
4	Florian Carvalho	France	25:30
5	Mitch Goose	United Kingdom	25:33
6	Christoph Ryffel	Switzerland	25:38
7	Abdi Nageeye	Netherlands	25:40
8	Ricky Stevenson	United Kingdom	25:40
9	Musa Roba-Kinkal	Germany	25:41
10	Alexander Söderberg	Sweden	25:45
11	Lewis Timmins	United Kingdom	25:45
12	Yegor Nikolayev	Russia	25:46

Team race

Rank	Team	Points
	France Noureddine Smaïl Hassan Chahdi Florian Carvalho Matthieu Le Stum	31
	United Kingdom Mitch Goose Ricky Stevenson Lewis Timmins Jonathan Taylor	45
	Belgium Atelaw Yeshetela Sanne Torfs Kim Ruell Ruben Vandevelde	59
4	Spain	81
5	Turkey	102
6	Ireland	105
7	Portugal	128
8	Netherlands	134

• Totals: 82 entrants, 81 starters, 75 finishers, 11 teams

Women's under-23

Individual race

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time (m:s)
	Sultan Haydar	Turkey	21:14
	Irina Sergeyeva	Russia	21:15
	Jessica Sparke	United Kingdom	21:26
4	Charlotte Browning	United Kingdom	21:30
5	Hollie Rowland	United Kingdom	21:31
6	Tatyana Shutova	Russia	21:32
7	Sandra Eriksson	Finland	21:32
8	Natalya Puchkova	Russia	21:36
9	Alfiya Khasanova	Russia	21:39
10	Stevie Stockton	United Kingdom	21:39
11	Stephanie Twell	United Kingdom	21:42
12	Anna Hahner	Germany	21:49

Team race

Rank	Team	Points
	United Kingdom Jessica Sparke Charlotte Browning Hollie Rowland Stevie Stockton	22
	Russia Irina Sergeyeva Tatyana Shutova Natalya Puchkova Alfiya Khasanova	25
	France Claire Navez Louise Ghesquiere Patricia Laubertie Laura Miclo	85
4	Germany	85
5	Ireland	98
6	Spain	155
7	Ukraine	162
8	Italy	163

• Totals: 61 entrants, 61 starters, 59 finishers, 8 teams

Men's junior

Individual race

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time (m:s)
	Jeroen D'Hoedt	Belgium	18:46
	Nick Goolab	United Kingdom	18:47
	James Wilkinson	United Kingdom	18:47
4	Sondre Nordstad Moen	Norway	18:49
5	Richard Goodman	United Kingdom	18:56
6	Rui Pinto	Portugal	18:57
7	Nemenja Cerovac	Serbia	18:59
8	Bryan Cantero	France	19:01
9	Abdelatif Hadjam	France	19:03
10	Lars Erik Malde	Norway	19:03
11	Soufiane Bouchikhi	Belgium	19:05
12	Henrik Ingebrigtsen	Norway	19:07

Team race

Rank	Team	Points
	United Kingdom Nick Goolab James Wilkinson Richard Goodman Matthew Gillespie	24
	France Bryan Cantero Abdelatif Hadjam Tanguy Pepiot Colin Guillard	58
	Norway Sondre Nordstad Moen Lars Erik Malde Henrik Ingebrigtsen Harald Kaarboe	77
4	Belgium	93
5	Spain	98
6	Portugal	127
7	Germany	129
8	Italy	137

• Totals: 89 entrants, 89 starters, 88 finishers, 15 teams

Women's junior

Individual race

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time (m:s)
	Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal	Norway	14:10
	Gulshat Fazlitdinova	Russia	14:12
	Kate Avery	United Kingdom	14:27
4	Corinna Harrer	Germany	14:33
5	Federica Bevilacqua	Italy	14:33
6	Lauren Howarth	United Kingdom	14:35
7	Sandra Mosquera	Spain	14:38
8	Lyudmila Lebedeva	Russia	14:38
9	Ciara Mageehan	Ireland	14:40
10	Cataryna Ribeiro	Portugal	14:40
11	Carla Salomé Rocha	Portugal	14:41
12	Amela Terzić	Serbia	14:42

Team race

Rank	Team	Points
	Russia Gulshat Fazlitdinova Lyudmila Lebedeva Yelena Sedova Tatyana Prorokova	47
	United Kingdom Kate Avery Lauren Howarth Eleanor Wimshurst Beth Potter	51
	Germany Corrina Harrer Jana Sussman Gesa-Felicitas Krause Stephanie Platt	73
4	France	98
5	Italy	100
6	Portugal	103
7	Belgium	118
8	Ukraine	122

• Totals: 76 entrants, 76 starters, 76 finishers, 11 teams

Total medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Great Britain (GBR)	3	6	3	12
2	France (FRA)	2	2	1	5
3	Spain (ESP)	2	1	1	4
4	Russia (RUS)	1	3	0	4
5	Belgium (BEL)	1	0	2	3
6	Norway (NOR)	1	0	1	2
7	Portugal (POR)	1	0	0	1
	Turkey (TUR)	1	0	0	1
9	Germany (GER)	0	0	1	1
	Italy (ITA)	0	0	1	1
	Netherlands (NED)	0	0	1	1
	Ukraine (UKR)	0	0	1	1
Totals (12 nations)		12	12	12	36

• Note: Totals include both individual and team medals, with medals in the team competition counting as one medal.

References

General

• Results – Senior Men. European Athletics (2009-12-13). Retrieved 2009-12-16.
• Results – Senior Women. European Athletics (2009-12-13). Retrieved 2009-12-17.
• Results – Under 23 Men. European Athletics (2009-12-13). Retrieved 2009-12-17.
• Results – Under 23 Women. European Athletics (2009-12-13). Retrieved 2009-12-17.
• Results – Junior Men. European Athletics (2009-12-13). Retrieved 2009-12-17.
• Results – Junior Women. European Athletics (2009-12-13). Retrieved 2009-12-17.

Specific

1. Ireland's first European athletics event: Story of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships. European Athletics (6 December 2009). Retrieved 16 December 2009.
2. About us. Clonliffe Harriers. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
3. The Course. Dublin 2009. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
4. Wenig, Jörg (11 December 2009). Lebid going for number nine, Augusto for number one – European XC Champs, PREVIEW. IAAF. Retrieved 16 December 2009.
5. SPAR European Cross Country Championships: athletes' press conference . European Athletics (12 December 2009). Retrieved 16 December 2009.
6. Dublin shows the diversity and strength of European distance running. European Athletics (14 December 2009). Retrieved 16 December 2009.
7. Wenig, Jörg (13 December 2009). Bezabeh stops Farah and Lebid – European XC, MEN’s Races. IAAF. Retrieved 18 December 2009.
8. Under 23 Women's Final: Turkey's Haydar gets it right this time Archived 17 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine. European Athletics (13 December 2009). Retrieved 18 December 2009.
9. Senior Men's Final: Bezabeh becomes Spain's first champion, Lebid third . European Athletics (13 December 2009). Retrieved 18 December 2009.
10. Hayley Yelling hangs up her spikes. European Athletics (17 December 2009). Retrieved 19 December 2009.
11. Yelling makes winning return in Liverpool Archived 28 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine. European Athletics (12 January 2009). Retrieved 19 December 2009.
12. Senior Women's Final: Britain's Yelling back with a bang. European Athletics (13 December 2009). Retrieved 19 December 2009.
13. Wenig, Jorg (13 December 2009). Yelling’s golden comeback – European XC, WOMEN’s Races. IAAF. Retrieved 19 December 2009.
14. Under 23 Men's Final: France's Smail proves he can run Cross Country. European Athletics (13 December 2009). Retrieved 19 December 2009.
15. Junior Women's Final: Grøvdal gets Norway's first ever gold. European Athletics. Retrieved 19 December 2009.
16. Junior Men's Final: Belgium's D'Hoedt turns back the clock. European Athletics (13 December 2009). Retrieved 19 December 2009.
17. "Dublino, l'Italia è di bronzo nel cross europeo" (in Italian). fidal.it. Retrieved 7 March 2020. Nella foto in alto, Daniele Meucci in azione. In basso, la squadra azzurra esulta sul podio degli Europei di cross di Dublino: da sinistra, Meucci, La Rosa, Buttazzo, Dematteis, De Nard, Lalli.

External links

• Official website
• European Athletics website