Ingebrigtsen to target a fourth senior title at SPAR European Cross Country Championships

And if he succeeds, Ingebrigtsen will become just the third four-time winner of the senior men’s race in championship history after Ukraine’s Serhiy Lebid and Portugal’s Paulo Guerra who won nine and four senior titles respectively.

In total, Ingebrigtsen has won seven individual titles at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships. He won four successive U20 titles between 2016-2019 before making a seamless transition to the senior ranks by becoming the youngest ever men’s senior champion in Fingal-Dublin 2021 at the age of 21.

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Ingebrigtsen went on to retain his senior title in 2022 before an injury knocked the Norwegian out of the 2023 SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Brussels. However, Ingebrigtsen regained his title last year with a masterful piece of running in Antalya, winning gold by eight seconds ahead of Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa.

Ingebrigtsen’s summer campaign was curtailed by a well-documented Achilles injury which left him short of form at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo but the Norwegian has still added a brace of major championships medals to his coffers in 2025.

Ingebrigtsen defended his 1500/3000m titles at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn before winning the very same double two weeks later on the global stage at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, becoming just the second male runner after Haile Gebrselassie in 1999 to clinch this double.

Ingebrigtsen also made history by smashing the world indoor mile record with 3:45.14 in Lievin in February. He also became the first athlete to run sub-3:30 for 1500m indoors, clocking 3:29.63 en route.

Ingebrigtsen spearheads a strong Norwegian team in the senior men’s race which also includes his older brother Filip, the 2018 European cross country champion, and 2023 European cross country silver medallist Magnus Tuv Myhre.

Moe Berg and Nygård Vie headline U20 teams

European U20 1500m and 3000m champion Håkon Moe Berg is part of a strong Norwegian team in the men’s U20 race who will be looking for back-to-back team titles.

After winning a 1500/3000m double in Tampere, Moe Berg smashed his 1500m lifetime best with a 3:30.28 clocking in Pfungstadt to move to third on the European U20 all-time list and qualify for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

The Norwegian team also includes Magnus Øyen and Kristian Bråthen Børve who finished fourth and tenth respectively in Antalya last year and were the second and third counters in Norway’s gold medal-winning team.

Reigning European U20 3000m steeplechase champion Andrea Nygård Vie has also been named on Norway’s team in the women’s U20 race.

Nygård Vie recently won the U20 race at the Nordic Cross Country Championships ahead of Venus Abraham Teffera who is also part of a team along with Wilma Anna Bekkemoen Torbiörnsson, the bronze medallist in the 3000m at the European Athletics U20 Championships.

Other notable names on the Norwegian team include world U20 3000m champion Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen who makes his debut in the U23 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships while 2021 European U20 1500m champion Ingeborg Østgard has been named for the U23 women’s race.

In the absence of three-time champion Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal who is expecting her first child, the senior women’s team is headed by national cross country champion Selma Engdahl.

Norway finished third on the medal table at the 2024 SPAR European Cross Country Championships with two gold medals and three medals in total. 

The full Norwegian team can be found here.

Steven Mills – European Athletics