One week to go! Countdown on to Lagoa 2025 SPAR European Cross Country Championships – European Athletics

The final entries for the 2025 SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa, Portugal on Sunday 14 December have been published and are available to view.

Lagoa 2025 will be streamed live on the European Athletics website and will be accompanied by English-language commentary.

• Final entries

In total, 644 athletes from 36 Member Federations are due to compete in this year’s edition in Lagoa which will be the fourth time Portugal has staged the championships.

Battocletti will also be aiming for back-to-back titles twelve months after becoming the first woman in SPAR European Cross Country Championships history to win individual U20, U23 and senior titles.

Four of the six individual champions from the 2024 SPAR European Cross Country Championships are due to compete, including last year’s senior women’s champion and Olympic and world 10,000m silver medallist Nadia Battocletti from Italy.

Battocletti will also be aiming for back-to-back titles twelve months after becoming the first woman in SPAR European Cross Country Championships history to win individual U20, U23 and senior titles.

However, a new champion will be crowned in the senior men’s race with Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen choosing not to compete at the 2025 SPAR European Cross Country Championships.

World 10,000m champion Jimmy Gressier is on the entry-list. However, the Frenchman will only decide on his participation after racing in the Course de l’Escalade in Geneva on Sunday.

If he competes, this will be Gressier’s first appearance at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships since 2021.

The senior women’s line-up also includes Diane Van Es from the Netherlands and Great Britain’s Megan Keith, the silver and bronze medallists behind Battocletti in the 10,000m at the 2024 European Athletics Championships, and former four-time European cross country champion Yasemin Can from Türkiye.

In the mixed relay, reigning champions Italy will face strong opposition from France and Great Britain, the silver and bronze medallists last year, as well as Portugal whose team features world 1500m champion Isaac Nader and double European indoor medallist Salome Afonso.

Will Barnicoat will be targeting a hat-trick of individual U23 titles, and his fourth individual gold medal in a row having also won the U20 title in 2022.

Barnicoat will face a field replete with talent including three gold medallists from the European Athletics U23 Championships in Bergen – Stefan Nillessen from the Netherlands (1500m), Joel Ibler Lillesø from Denmark (10,000m) and Poland’s Maciej Megier (3000m steeplechase) – as well as Ireland’s Nick Griggs, the silver medallist behind Barnicoat last year.

Three gold medallists from the 2025 European Athletics U20 Championships in Tampere will meet in the men’s U20 race. European U20 1500m and 3000m champion Hakon Moe Berg from Norway faces 5000m champion Willem Renders from Belgium and 3000m steeplechase champion Kiyasettin Kara from Türkiye.

Great Britain’s Innes FitzGerald will also be aiming for her third successive individual and team titles in the women’s U20 race while Spain’s Maria Forero and Finland’s Ilona Mononen, who won silver and bronze in the U23 race last year and both won gold in the 5000m and 3000m steeplechase respectively in Bergen, are among the favourites for the women’s U23 title.

The oldest athlete registered for the championships is Gibraltar’s Maurice Turnock (4/5/1974) in the senior men’s race and the youngest is Czechia’s Veronika Brizova (2/10/2009) in the women’s U20 race.

In-depth previews on all seven races will be published on the European Athletics website from Monday (8) onwards. There will also be comprehensive build-up to the championships across all European Athletics’ social media channels.

Source: European Athletics