European Athletics (EAA) – News – Preliminary entries indicate record numbers for Budapest 2012

After the preliminary entries closed, a total of 599 athletes from 32 European Athletics Member Federations have been entered to contest the six races that will make up the 2012 SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on 9 December.

All this means that there is the good chance that there will be several SPAR European Cross Country Championships records set or equalled in Szentendre, which nestles on the banks of the Danube just north of the capital Budapest, in December.

The highest number of countries to participate were the 34 nations that made the trip to the town of Albufeira on Portugal's Algarve coast for the 2010 edition of the championships.

Overall, the record number of competitors has been the 468 runners that competed at the 2006, 2008 and 2010 SPAR European Cross Country Championships.

There will inevitably be fewer people on the start line in Budapest than the 599 initial entries as there is always a small number of last minute withdrawals.

However, all the indications are that several records for the event, including the highest numbers in various individual races, could be set.

The biggest national delegations will come from the traditional continental powerhouses of cross country running, France, Great Britain, Portugal and Spain, but hosts Hungary have also promised to give their runners a great chance for exposure in international competition and enter complete teams in most races.

Hungary is familiar with staging top-level athletics events, particularly in and around Budapest. The 1966 and 1998 European Athletics Championships, the 1983 and 1988 European Athletics Indoor Championships, as well as the 1989 and 2004 World Indoor Championships are all remembered fondly.

Additionally, the 1994 World Cross Country Championships were held on a horse racing track at Budapest's Kincsam Park; an event which saw a youthful Sergey Lebid finish 33rd in the junior men's race, the first sight at a major championship of the Ukrainian runner who has gone on to become arguably Europe's greatest cross country runner ever and won at the SPAR European Cross Country Championship on a record nine occasions.