European Athletics – News – Team Europe all set for Edinburgh

The setting is the beautiful Holyrood Park, the weather is expected to be around two degrees and there might be a bit of rain in the air.

Put all those ingredients together and the Great Edinburgh Cross Country on Saturday will be a tough and thrilling test for the men and women of Team Europe, Great Britain and the USA in the annual match to start the New Year.

The international match will feature five races, with this European Athletics Permit event being available for live streaming on the homepage of www.european-athletics.org from 14:00 CET and it includes the biggest name in distance running in the world – Mo Farah.

It should be quite an afternoon…

MEN’S 8km (14:57 CET)

Not since running here in 2011 has Mo Farah’s golden shoes touched this kind of surface in a competitive race. Since then he has progressed to write his way into athletics history with Olympic, world and European triumphs on the track and he cannot wait to step out in Scotland to begin his countdown to Rio in August.

Farah is one of 12 British runners but they face a huge threat from Team Europe, who are led by the complete Spanish quartet that won team gold just under a month ago at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Hyères.

It was some performance from Spain in France as their men finished second, third, fourth and fifth and the four from those positions, Alemayehu Bezabeh, Adel Mechaal, Alemayehu Bezabeh and Ilias Fifa, now carry the colours of Europe.

They are joined by countryman Carlos Mayo who was second in the under-23 race in Hyères, beaten by three seconds by Farah’s teammate tomorrow, Jonathan Davies. Third from that race, Germany’s Amanal Petros, is also among the 10 runners from Team Europe.

But the USA will pose a big threat, with Garrett Heath looking for a hat-trick of Edinburgh wins after his victories in 2014 and 2015.

WOMEN’S 6km (14:30 CET)

Back in 2014, Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack finished second over 10km in Edinburgh and she is here again as the Team Europe captain as they will face two of Britain’s leading cross-country runners.

Kate Avery has finished second in the past two stagings of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, and in 2014 she was beaten narrowly by Gemma Steel, her fellow teammate on Saturday. They will be in the mix against a European side which sees McCormack fresh from her team bronze and fourth place in Hyères and Serbia’s Amela Terzic in fine form, too, after she finished third in the under-23 race at the championships in December.

Infact, all of the 10 Team Europe women in Edinburgh competed in Hyères, in either the senior or under-23 race, and while the USA have their 2014 NCAA 10,000m champion Emma Bates in their side, it should be a European-British duel.

JUNIOR MEN 6km (13:00 CET)*

Hyères was the first time France had staged the SPAR European Cross Country Championships and among their six medals, there was gold in the men’s junior team competition, where Fabien Palcau finished second in the individual race and Jimmy Gressier was fourth.

They now both spearhead Team Europe’s challenge in Edinburgh and making up three French runners in the six-man team is Baptiste Mischler, who also had a great 2015 as he won silver in the 1500m at the European Athletics Junior Championships in Eskilstuna.

Britain’s squad includes the English national cross country champion Mahamed Mahamed, while leading American Garek Bielaczyc has run 1:56.36 for the 800m.

JUNIOR WOMEN 4km (13:30 CET)*

It was quite a year but for different reasons for Britain’s Harriet Knowles-Jones and Bobby Clay and Germany’s Sarah Kistner, and they come together in a race where their various talents means it is a wide-open event.

Knowles-Jones celebrated silver in Hyères, producing a fine performance and she will be in with a big chance.

Clay had a brilliant summer as she won 1500m gold in Eskilstuna, before finishing fifth at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, one place and six seconds in front of Kistner, who in 2015 won the European junior mountain running title.

Tackling tricky climbs will suit her well on Saturday, while Knowles-Jones has shown her ability to handle this surface and Clay has proved she has finishing speed.

It would be surprising if these three are not at the forefront of proceedings.

INTERNATIONAL TEAM RELAY 4x1km (14:06 CET)

Team Europe has a strong quartet in this mixed relay, led off by Pieter-Jan Hannes, the Belgian who won Eurocross under-23 gold in 2013. He will hand over to Italy’s Margherita Magnani, and then it will be Jakub Holusa, of the Czech Republic, the man who brought the house down in Prague last March when he won 1500m gold at the European Athletics Indoor Championships. The final leg will be run by Romania’s Claudia Bobocea, with Charlie Grice, who reached the 1500m world final in Beijing, in the British squad and Cory Leslie, the Pan American Games 3000m steeplechase bronze medallist, in the USA team. Scotland also have two teams in this event, while England, Ireland and Wales have one.

Full startlists are available here.

*Denotes these race times might change

European Athletics – News