European Athletics (EAA) – News – SENIOR WOMEN’S PREVIEW: Yelling-Higham goes for unprecedented hat trick

Great Britain’s Hayley Yelling-Higham came out of a short-lived retirement last year to win at the 2009 SPAR European Cross Country Championships and add the gold medal to the one she won in 2004 and the now 36-year-old school teacher has a unique opportunity to make a little bit of European Athletics history.

Only Yelling and her compatriot Paula Radcliffe have won the senior women’s race twice and as the world marathon record holder has opted not to compete in the Championships again after her last victory in 2003, she is the first women to have a tilt at a getting a hat trick of titles.

It has to be said that Yelling-Higham doesn’t come into the race in the best of form.

She was only seventh at the McCain Liverpool Cross Challenge, which incorporated the UK Trials, on November 28, suffering from a bad cold in her only race of the winter so far.

The relatively hard and flat course in Albufeira wouldn’t also be thought of as one that would favour Yelling-Higham’s talents.

Nevertheless, she has shown her ability to rise to the occasion at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships and stunned everyone with her magnificent gun-to-tape run in Dublin 12 months ago and will not let her title go lightly.

Yelling-Higham is also assured of one other accolade with the first step that she takes on Sunday. She will equal the women’s record of 13 appearances at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, which is currently held by Belgium’s Anja Smolders.

The two of the three women who finished immediately behind Yelling-Higham in the Irish capital will also be on the start line again on Sunday.

Spain’s 2009 silver medallist Rosa Morató sadly withdrew from the Championships on Wednesday, suffering from a hamstring strain, but The Netherlands’ bronze medallist Adrienne Herzog will be bidding for her first title, after also getting a silver medal as an under 23 runner in 2007.

Herzog was a runaway winner at the European Athletics Cross Country Permit Meeting, the International loket.nl Warandeloop, in Tilburg on November 28 and will be competing in the Championships for a 10^th time.

“The European Cross Country Championships are something special to me, they have always been the focal point of the winter ever since I first ran in the junior race back in 2001 as a 16 year old,” Herzog told European Athletics recently.

Getting the biggest cheers from the home crowd though will inevitably be Portugal’s Jessica Augusto, who was second in 2008 and fourth last year.

Augusto also lead Portugal to the 2009 senior women’s team title and the 2000 junior champion could be in contention for a double trip to the podium, just like in Brussels two years ago, after an outstanding win in the Portuguese Trials race, the Crosse de Torres Vedras on November 28.

“It’s logical that we want to repeat last year's team win but I think I can also fight for an individual medal as well. I can't deny that I'm dreaming about winning. I have never won an individual senior European title so it would be something special to do it on home soil,” said Augusto said after her victory two weeks ago.

Behind Augusto in Torres Vedras was Dulce Félix in 18:44, who was sixth in Dublin, while back in third was marathon specialist Marisa Barros in 19:15.

Local favourite Jessica Augusto is hopeful of winning an individual title in front of her home crowd on Sunday.

The trio will joined in the Portuguese senior women’s team by Anália Rosa, Ana Dias and Sara Moreira, the latter finishing 10^th last year. It is far from inconceivable that, just like in 2008 when Augusto was accompanied by bronze medallist Inês Monteiro, that there could be more than one Portuguese woman on the podium.

Both Moreira and Augusto won bronze medals on the track at this summer’s European Athletics Championships, in the 5000m and 10000m respectively.

Injuries mean that Monteiro, who finished fifth in Dublin but who is replaced by Barros this time around, is missing from the Portuguese team that will do battle in Albufeira but otherwise five of the six women who were in their gold medal-winning team last year will return to wear the national colours again.

In addition to Yelling-Higham, one other previous senior women’s winner of the SPAR Cross Country Championships will be in action on Sunday, Ukraine's Tetyana Holovchenko who took the title in 2006 and who was eighth last year.

Other contenders to consider also include the Turkish pair of Binnaz Uslu and Sultan Haydar who both have won gold medals in other categories at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.

Uslu won as a junior in 2004 and as an under 23 runner in 2006 while Haydar was last year’s under 23 women’s gold medallist.

The senior women’s race will be over 8170m (270m + 3 Short Laps of 500m + 4 x Long Lap 1600m) with two small hills and a ditch on each of the long laps.

Portugal look like clear favourites to retain the team title they took in 2008 and 2009, especially with the undeniable advantage of running on familiar terrain and with the boost of competing in front of a home crowd.

Neighbours Spain, third in 2009 and the winners back in 2007, could be in the medals again despite the enforced absence of Morató, although her injury has probably dented their chances of regaining the top spot among the teams.

The in-form Alessandra Aguilar was an impressive winner of the XXVII Cross Internacional Valle de Llodio, a European Athletics Cross Country Permit Meeting, on November 28 while track stars Nuria Fernández and Natalia Rodríguez are also in the Spanish squad.

Fernández, the 2010 European Athletics Championships 1500m champion, has raced at the continents top cross country event for the last two years and only finished a modest 42nd and 23rd but the Madrid-based athlete who is also a regular training partner of Herzog is looking for a much, much higher finish this time around.

Rodríguez, the World Indoor Championships 1500m silver medallist and third behind Fernández in the same event in Barcelona, will be making her debut in the Championships at 31 years of age but has recently been putting in the work over longer distances.

She was recently a convincing winner of the famous Jean Bouin 10km road race in Barcelona and the course in Albufeira may suit the likes of Fernández and Rodríguez.

Great Britain also have ambitions of staying on the podium after having been the silver medallists for no less than the last six years.

Yelling-Higham is joined in the team by Louise Damen, who won the UK Trial race, former three-time European junior champion and 2008 European Athletics Rising Star Stephanie Twell, who has decided to pass on the chance of a medal in the under 23 race to bolster the British senior team, Helen Clitheroe, Hatti Dean, fourth in the 2010 European Athletics Championships 3000m steeplechase, and Gemma Steel.

The three nations that were on the podium 12 months ago in Dublin look like the potential team medallists again but from among the rest of the seven nations that have entered four runners or more, Russia may have a chance of breaking up that cartel with a squad that includes Irina Sergeyeva, last year’s under 23 silver medallist.

European Athletics (EAA) – News