European Athletics (EAA) – News – Gorecka ready to show what she is made of as Britton looks for the next major step in Bydgoszcz

It will be cold and the course is likely to be full of snow, yet that will do nothing but enhance the drama in Bydgoszcz on Sunday for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

If the clock is turned back 21 years, that was the scene when the event was staged in Boston and the women's junior race was won by a youngster from Europe who went on to make a rather good impression on the world stage.

Few had heard of Paula Radcliffe before that day. But it was just the beginning for a woman who progressed to become the marathon world record-holder and whose tones will be heard from the BBC commentary box at Sunday's event.

Could it be that the past is talking about a golden hope of the future?

As the expected dominance of the African nations is likely to bring a sweep of the medals in the senior events, Britain's Emelie Gorecka is following in the footsteps of Radcliffe in the women's junior race over three laps and 6km of the course at Myslecinek Park.

Back in December in Budapest, Gorecka, 19, won individual silver and team gold at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.

A year earlier in Velenje, she was the individual gold medallist, along with being part of the triumphant British team, and she also has silver from the 5000m at the European Athletics Junior Championships in 2011 in Tallinn and bronze from last summer's World Junior Championships.

It is on the tricky cross-country circuits where she has achieved her greatest success and arrives in Poland having won the British trials.

Gorecka was 23rd here three years ago and in 2011, she was the leading European when she was 15th in Punta Umbria.

She is ready for the challenge again, this as time as, arguably, Europe's most realistic hope of leaving these World Cross Country Championships with a medal.

Gorecka said: "I've been training hard and even without ideal preparation for the Inter Counties it was very reassuring for me and my coach that all the hard work up to date helped pull me round to victory.

"The World Cross Country Championships have been described as one of the toughest events on the planet and having already competed in two previous championships a part of me would agree.

"I won't put any limits on myself, being a part of the World Cross is a fantastic experience and I intend to make the most of it by pushing myself to be the best that I can."

Europe's bid in the women's senior race will be led by Ireland's Fionnuala Britton, the double European Cross Country champion who has had a magnificent few months.

After she defended her title in Budapest, and won a series of other international cross country races, she then switched her attention to Sweden where she won bronze in the 3000m at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Göteborg.

It was her first major track medal and she is determined to now turn her form in Europe into an impressive performance on Sunday as she returns to surface which has brought her greatest success.

Britton, whose best finish in the World Cross Country Championships was 14th in Mombassa in 2007, led the way in Hungary in December as Ireland's women won team gold and she is joined by three other members of that squad in Bydgoszcz – Linda Byrne, who was eighth in the individual race, Ava Hutchinson and Elizabeth Lee.

Spain's Diana Martin, who was 10th in Budapest, is also in Poland. And it is her teammates who carry Europe's top hopes in the men's race with Carles Castillejo, fifth in Hungary, and Ayad Lamdassem, the 2010 European Cross Country silver medallist who was sixth in December, at the helm of their squad.

Sixth in Hungary in the men's junior race in Budapest was Belgian Isaac Kimeli and he will be looking to make his mark too.

 

 European Athletics (EAA) – News