2009 European Cross Country Championships

Bidding

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.

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.

Course

The course was situated in Santry Demesne Park adjacent the national track and field stadium, Morton Stadium, which is the home stadium for Clonliffe Harriers – the oldest athletics club in Ireland. The course's looped design allowed for races of varying lengths through the use of laps. The four race lengths were: 9997 m for the senior men's race, 8018 m for the senior women's and men's under-23 competitions, 6039 m for the under-23 women and junior men, and finally 4039 m 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.

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.

On the day of the race, an estimated 7000 spectators were in attendance and a total of 323 athletes represented 30 European nations. 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.

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. 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.

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 – 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.

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, but she returned to competition in December 2009 with a win at the British selection race for that year's race.

Yelling started with a quick pace, rapidly building up a lead over the pack of runners in the early stages of the race. 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. Yelling, still leading, maintained her fast speed after the halfway point while Augusto and Morató filled out the medalling positions. 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. 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.

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. 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, proving his abilities after a disappointing race in 2008. Chahdi was the silver medallist and Yeshetela took third place, while Frenchman Florian Carvalho was fourth, setting up France as the team gold medallists of the race. Great Britain and Belgium took the team silver and bronze respectively.

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. 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. 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.

In the junior races, Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal became the first Norwegian to win at the European Championships. 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.

Race results

Men's senior

• 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

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

Men's under-23

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

Women's under-23

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

Men's junior

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

Women's junior

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

Total medal table

• 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

References

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8. Wenig, Jörg (13 December 2009). [http://www.iaaf.org/WXC10/news/kind=100/newsid=55125.html Bezabeh stops Farah and Lebid – European XC, MEN’s Races]. [[IAAF]]. Retrieved 18 December 2009.
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10. link. (28 December 2009 . [[European Athletics]] (12 January 2009). Retrieved 19 December 2009.)
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12. Wenig, Jorg (13 December 2009). [http://www.iaaf.org/WXC10/news/kind=100/newsid=55118.html Yelling’s golden comeback – European XC, WOMEN’s Races]. [[IAAF]]. Retrieved 19 December 2009.
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14. link. (17 December 2009 . [[European Athletics]] (13 December 2009). Retrieved 18 December 2009.)
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