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2023-24 World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver & Bronze calendar (at 23 October)

2023-24 World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver & Bronze details (at 23 October)

World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver and Bronze Meetings

Sweden&rsquo;s Sarah Lahti successfully defended her 8km title at the Warandecross in Tilburg on Sunday (26) on the road to the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Brussels on 10 December.
Lahti completed the second part of a Nordic double in the senior races after Norway&rsquo;s Senay Fissehatsion converted his promising recent form on the roads to the cross country with victory in the men&rsquo;s 10km.
The Warandecross is a World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver level event and the last race on the European calendar before Brussels. A full race replay can be found <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFg5v_f3pE4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;
In a near repeat of last year&rsquo;s race, Lahti established a big lead of around 20 seconds on the first lap which she didn&rsquo;t relinquish. Lahti covered the 8km in the Oude Warande in 26:25 - 15 seconds faster than last year - to become the first athlete since Sifan Hassan in 2015 to win back-to-back titles at the Warandecross.&nbsp;
Belgium&rsquo;s Jana Van Lent, who has been selected for the U23 race at the European Cross Country Championships, warmed up for her home championships in Brussels with a runner-up finish in 26:57 with Merel van der Marel third on home soil in 27:18.
<img src="https://european-athletics.directus.app/assets/5158b775-642a-4154-b668-39b8d58af2c4?width=2048&amp;height=1365" alt="2023 Warandeloop Preview Zondag 236">
The senior men&rsquo;s 10km was also dominated by international athletes with Fissehatsion - who began his autumn season with a 60:55 half marathon performance in Copenhagen - taking a notable win ahead of Spain&rsquo;s former European 5000m champion Ilias Fifa.
Behind the leading two - both of whom were timed at 29:10 for the 10km distance comprised largely on twisty woodland terrain - Belgium&rsquo;s Thomas Vanoppen completed the podium in third in 29:17 with Filmon Tesfu the leading Dutch finisher in fourth in 29:23.
In the build-up to the European Cross Country Championships, Jesse Fokkenrood from the Netherlands was the first U23 finisher in 10th in 29:33.&nbsp;
The full results can be found <a href="https://evenementen.uitslagen.nl/2023/warandeloop/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
<h2 dir="ltr">Keith builds momentum with victory in Liverpool</h2>
European U23 5000m champion Megan Keith dominated the senior women&rsquo;s race at the Liverpool Cross Challenge on Saturday (25), the British trial race for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
The 21-year-old dispatched her older and more experienced rivals in convincing fashion, powering through the mud for victory in the senior women&rsquo;s 8.1km in 26:02.&nbsp;
She had a 53 second wait to shake hands with the runner-up Abbie Donnelly (26:55) with Izzy Fry and world 10,000m eighth-placer Jessica Warner-Judd third (27:05) and fourth (27:09) respectively.
Based on her showings in Cardiff and Liverpool in recent weeks, Keith will begin as the outstanding favourite to add the European U23 cross country title to her U20 gold medal from Fingal-Dublin in 2021.
[INSTAGRAM ID="http://www.instagram.com/p/C0EmPybtFrZ/?img_index=1"]
While Keith&rsquo;s victory was broadly anticipated, there was an upset in the senior men&rsquo;s race with Hugo Milner - primarily a triathlete these days - easing to the senior men&rsquo;s 9.8km title in 28:38 by a clear distance ahead of 1500m specialist Matt Stonier who finished quickly to take second in 29:02.
Stonier will be joined on a strong U23 team in Brussels by European U23 10,000m champion Rory Leonard who finished fourth in 29:03.
In other races, European cross country fourth-placer Innes Fitzgerald won the U20 women's race by 30 seconds in 14:30 while Josh Lay (4:28) and Bethan Morley (5:06) won the short course 1500m titles, the trial race for the mixed relay in Brussels next month.&nbsp;
<h2 dir="ltr">Elsewhere around Europe&hellip;</h2>
Bastien Augusto won one of the principal French selection races for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Brussels in Carhaix on Sunday (26).
Fresh from a recent 27:40 10km, Augusto won the 9km in 27:13 ahead of multiple European cross country team gold medallist Hugo Hay (27:16) and Fabien Palcau (27:17).&nbsp;
[INSTAGRAM ID="http://www.instagram.com/p/C0HP6ngIVar"]
At the German Cross Country Championships in Perl on Sunday (26), steeplechaser Elena Burkard won the senior women&rsquo;s 6.8km title in 22:40 ahead of Eva Dieterich in 22:43.
Markus Gorger won the senior men&rsquo;s 9.7km by a clear margin from Filmon Tekleberhan - 27:45 to 28:31.&nbsp;
Behind Kenyans Edward Zakayo (26:30) and Vincent Rono (26:49) - both of whom compete for Portuguese clubs - Etson Barros won the senior men&rsquo;s title at the Portuguese Cross Country Championships in Amora on Sunday.
Multiple European cross country medallist Mariana Machado won the senior women&rsquo;s race ahead of Kenya&rsquo;s Fancy Cherono.

Lahti retains her Warandecross title in Tilburg on the road to Brussels 2023 

Carolina Johnson became the first Swedish winner of the women&rsquo;s 30km since 2017 at the TCS Liding&ouml;loppet, a World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver event, on Saturday (23).
In the first of five World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver and Bronze events to be held in Europe in the build-up to the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Brussels on 10 December, Johnson won over the atypical cross country distance of 30km in 1:54:25 ahead of four-time winner and course record-holder Sylvia Medugu from Kenya in 1:56:08.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Maybe it wasn't what everyone had expected but I still had the goal of reaching a top position. The goal was still high up, maybe at the very top,&rdquo; said Johnson as reported by SVT.&nbsp;
<img src="https://european-athletics.directus.app/assets/b09c660e-1e9e-4535-881b-ffbdc7e39a71?width=5000&amp;height=5000" alt="230923 Lidingoloppet 029">
A former European U20 3000m steeplechase silver medallist, Johnson&rsquo;s ascent into the senior ranks has been blighted by injuries but the 27-year-old has aspirations of representing Sweden on the track next year at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships and the Olympic Games in Paris.
&ldquo;It wouldn't really have been me if I hadn't aimed for the biggest and I think that everything is possible. Besides, I have a lot left to do and have a lot to get out,&rdquo; said Johnson.&nbsp;
American international Diego Estrada won the men&rsquo;s 30km in 1:39:11 ahead of Sweden&rsquo;s Linus Rosdahl in 1:40:27, adding his name to an illustrious roll-of-honour which includes the likes of 1980 Olympic 5000m silver medallist Suleiman Nyambui from Tanzania and Kenya&rsquo;s Douglas Wakihurii, the 1987 world marathon champion.
More than 25,000 runners from 70 countries took part across the programme, signalling a return to pre-pandemic levels of participation in the world&rsquo;s biggest cross country race.
The next European fixture on the World Athletics Cross Country Silver and Bronze tour is the Autumn Open International in Dublin, Ireland.&nbsp;
The full calendar can be found <a href="https://european-athletics.directus.app/assets/2e479d82-5d6f-4c9d-9f23-a2ab02701504/Calendar%20WA%20Cross%20Country%20Tour%202024%20Europe.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.&nbsp;

Johnson upsets four-time winner Medugu as cross country season begins at the Lidingöloppet 

Femke Bol made a perfect start to her indoor season at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston by setting a women&rsquo;s 500m world best of 1:05.63.
The 22-year-old Dutch runner, who has Olympic bronze and world silver medals at 400m hurdles, laid down a huge marker for a season where she hopes, firstly, to defend her European indoor 400m title in Istanbul before seeking a first global gold at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
Her committed performance jump-started the second World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting of the season, which was making its debut appearance at the TRACK at New Balance meeting in Brighton, Massachusetts.
Bol eclipsed the 17-year-old mark of 1:06.31 to finish almost three seconds clear of Jamaica&rsquo;s Leah Anderson, who recorded a national record of 1:08.34.
But she was typically pragmatic afterwards as she commented: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really for my 400m hurdles, because you need a strong last part."
[TWITTER ID="http://twitter.com/WorldAthletics/status/1621981826083340288"]
She knows that well enough having seen her huge effort in Oregon last year bettered by an extraordinary late surge from home athlete Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone en route to an equally extraordinary world record of 50.68, metres faster than Bol&rsquo;s personal best of 52.03.
Bol &nbsp;added: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just super happy to have it worked out like this. No, I&rsquo;m not planning to go further than 500m. Now I&rsquo;m moving to some 400s before I do the European Indoor Championships.&rdquo;
Britain&rsquo;s Laura Muir, who has the possibility of winning a third consecutive 1500/3,000m double at next month&rsquo;s European Athletics Indoor Championships in Istanbul, got her season off to a winning start in the 3000m, where she moved clear of all but fellow Briton Melissa Courtney-Bryant by the halfway point before coming home in 8:40.34, with her compatriot second in 8:41.09 and two other Britons who ran personal bests in third and fourth place &ndash; Katie Snowdon in 8:47.41, and Hannah Nuttall in 8:47.72.
<img src="https://european-athletics.directus.app/assets/941647ca-2e12-42ba-aac7-b4d2fba911c6?width=4900&amp;height=3267" alt="Getty Images 1462826670" />
Ireland&rsquo;s Ciara Mageean, who took 1500m silver behind Muir at last year&rsquo;s European Athletics Championships in Munich, looked out of sorts after completing a tough training block and failed to finish.
Despite getting himself boxed in on the run-in, Britain&rsquo;s Neil Gourley beat New Zealand&rsquo;s longtime leader Sam Tanner on the line to win the men&rsquo;s mile by one hundredth of a second in 3:52.84, a personal best and the fastest time run this season.

Bol opens her season  with world 500m best in Boston

Serbia&rsquo;s Elzan Bibic and Sweden&rsquo;s Sarah Lahti strode to comfortable victories at the Warandecross in Tilburg on Sunday (27), the last major continental cross country fixture before the SPAR European Cross Country Championships on 11 December.
The Warandecross was the fifth and final World Athletics Cross Country Tour event with Silver-label status in Europe for the 2022-23 season and also served as the venue for this year&rsquo;s Dutch Cross Country Championships.
On the road to Piemonte-La Mandria Park, Bibic won the senior men&rsquo;s 10km in 29:26. He defeated a field that was composed predominantly of Dutch athletes with Stan Niesten and Filmon Tesfu finishing second and third respectively and both timed at 29:34.
Already a medallist in the U20 and U23 race at the European Cross Country Championships, Bibic will be making his debut in the senior race in La Mandria Park next month.&nbsp;
Bibic won U20 bronze behind Jakob Ingebrigtsen in Tilburg in 2018 - albeit at a different venue to the one which is traditionally used for the Warandecross which dates back to 1956 in terms of antiquity - before graduating to U23 silver behind France&rsquo;s Jimmy Gressier in 2019.&nbsp;
In the senior women&rsquo;s race, Sarah Lahti from Sweden followed up her victory from Mol at the end of last month with another significant European victory. Lahti won by an even greater margin than Bibic, covering the 8km in 26:40 ahead of Silke Jonkman (26:56) and Diane Van Es (27:07).
Lahti is also targeting the European Cross Country Championships next month where the Swedes will also be strong contenders for a team medal. The Swedish team for the senior women's race also includes reigning individual silver medallist Meraf Bahta and Samrawit Mengsteab, the surprise bronze medal at the 2019 edition of the European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon.
There was also keen interest in the men&rsquo;s U20 6km which featured three of Europe&rsquo;s brightest distance running prospects including 17-year-old Niels Laros, the Dutch phenomenon who broke the European U18 bests at 1500m and 3000m this summer and won gold medals in both events at the European Athletics U18 Championships in Jerusalem.
However, the youngest of the triumvirate had to settle for third in 18:18 behind Norway&rsquo;s European U20 10,000m record-holder Abdullahi Dahir Rabi who won by two seconds from Denmark&rsquo;s Joel Ibler Lilles&oslash; - 18:05 to 18:07.
Rabi and Lilles&oslash; won silver and bronze respectively in the U20 race in Fingal-Dublin last year and will be looking to ameliorate their positions in their final year of eligibility before they progress into the U23 ranks in 2023.
Hungary&rsquo;s Greta Varga, who finished seventh in the U20 race at the European Cross Country Championships at the age of 15, was the most decisive winner of the programme. Now 18, Varga won the U20 4.3km in 14:55 by more than half-a-minute from Dione Schipper in 15:29.
Full results <a href="https://evenementen.uitslagen.nl/2022/warandeloop/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Bibic and Lahti dominate in Tilburg on the road to the European Cross

Swedish distance runner Samuel Tsegay took a decisive victory at the famous TCS Liding&ouml;loppet on Saturday (24), the traditional curtain raiser for the World Athletics Cross Country Tour.&nbsp;
The Liding&ouml;loppet, which dates back to 1965 in terms of antiquity and is one of the longest standing events on the international cross country calendar, is one of five events with Silver level status in the build-up to the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Italy on 11 December.
But what sets the Liding&ouml;loppet apart is the fact the main spectacle of the programme takes place over a distance of 30 kilometres, three times the distance the senior men will contest in Turin in December.
But this certainly played to the advantage of Tsegay who boasts a half marathon lifetime best of 59:21 and a marathon lifetime best of 2:06:53. The 34-year-old utilised his strength to good advantage, amassing a lead of 50 seconds through 10 kilometres before extending his winning margin to over one minute.
<img src="https://european-athletics.directus.app/assets/d6127be6-9c5c-4723-9712-099280b7bf48?width=5472&amp;height=3648" alt="Foto: Peter Holgersson AB" />
The Eritrean-born Tsegay, who has been based in Sweden since 2018 and who made his debut for his adopted country in the Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships marathon, covered the 30km course in 1:38:00 to defeat Denmark&rsquo;s Abdi-Hakin Ulan (1:39:02) and fellow Swede Mohammed Reza (1:39:05). Orienteer Emil Svensk was fourth in 1:39:07.
&ldquo;I am very happy about the victory, the course is very up and down but I am satisfied that I was able to take home the victory even though it was tough. My tactic was to go out hard and it turned out to work,&rdquo; said Tsegay, who is now targetting a top 10 place on the continental stage in 11 weeks time.
In the women&rsquo;s race, Denmark-based Kenyan Sylvia Medugu took her sixth successive victory in this race. Medugu pulled away in the latter stages for yet another victory in 1:54:27 ahead of 2019 European cross country bronze medallist Samrawit Mengsteab in 1:55:22.
<img src="https://european-athletics.directus.app/assets/b1cd7c1a-6d4b-4a12-8b8e-a536e675c42b?width=4022&amp;height=2680" alt="Foto: Peter Holgersson AB" />
In the 15km events, long-time Swedish international marathon runner David Nilsson won in 46:46 by over one minute from Axel Djurberg while Norway&rsquo;s former European U20 3000m steeplechase silver medallist Kristine Eikrem Engeset won the women&rsquo;s race in 55:12.&nbsp;
Much further back, legendary Swedish swimmer Sarah Sj&ouml;strom clocked 1:28:53 in the 15km event.
The next significant fixture on the European calendar in the build-up to the SPAR European Cross Country Championships is the Northern Ireland International Cross Country event on 22 October.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Full results <a title="" href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competition/calendar-results/results/7185928" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.&nbsp;

Tsegay opens European cross country season with decisive 30km victory at the Lidingöloppet

The famous TCS Lidingoloppet races in the the Swedish town of Lidingo provided the curtain raiser to this winter's newly inaugerated World Athletics Cross Country Tour on Sunday (26).
After essentially being a domestic competition in 2020, with competitors also running remotely and online over a period of a month, this year international competitors returned to the Lidingo island in the inner Stockholm archipelago to the north-east of the capital.
Samuel Russom &ndash; an Eritrean refugee who arrived in Sweden in early 2018 and runs for the nearby Hasselby club in Stockholm, and who hopes to be cleared to run for his adopted country in time for next year&rsquo;s European Athletics Championships &ndash; won the challenging 30km race in 1:36:56 by more than a minute after pulling away from his nearest rivals with just over three kilometres to go.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Suver&auml;n Liding&ouml;loppsseger f&ouml;r H&auml;sselbys Samuel Russom <a href="https://t.co/Lg8hCXVfit">https://t.co/Lg8hCXVfit</a> <a href="https://t.co/n5gBxXFohB">pic.twitter.com/n5gBxXFohB</a>
&mdash; Jonas Hedman (@Friidrottaren) <a href="https://twitter.com/Friidrottaren/status/1441711226027839495?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 25, 2021</a></blockquote>
Swedish international runner David Nilsson was the leading European in fifth place in 1:40:05.
Kenya&rsquo;s Sylvia Medugu, who runs for the Danish club Koge and won the Lidingoloppet in 2018 and 2019, got her third victory in the race when she crossed the line in 1:55:03, almost three minutes ahead of Sweden&rsquo;s 21-year-old Linnea Sennstrom who was second in 1:57:52.
Over 5300 runners finished the main 30km race while more than 3000 runners also finished the U20 and veterans 15km race.
In the 2021-22 winter, there will be seven more World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver and Bronze meetings across Europe in five different countries. The next two meetings on the Europeand leg of the Tour are the 65th Cross Internacional de San Sebastian in Spain and the Cross Cup von Mol in Belgium,&nbsp; which will both take place on Sunday 7 November. The pair are Bronze level meetings.
The International Warandecross Tilburg, the Netherlands then take place on Sunday 28 November, two weeks before the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Dublin-Fingal on Sunday 12 December, and is a Silver level meetings.
Four more World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver and Bronze meetings will take place in Europe during January and February 2022. A full calendar is available <a title="" href="https://european-athletics.directus.app/downloads/07ddfa86-b45e-4bf5-84c3-4f9216539c76/2021-2022 World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver and Bronze meetings in Europe.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Sweden's famous Lidingoloppet races get 2021-22 European Athletics Cross Country Permit Meetings underway

Sweden's famous Lidingoloppet races gets the 2021-22 World Athletics Cross Country Tour in Europe underway

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World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver and Bronze Meetings Reports

World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver and Bronze Meetings | All Reports

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World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver and Bronze Meetings Reports News

Lahti retains her Warandecross title in Tilburg on the road to Brussels 2023

Johnson upsets four-time winner Medugu as cross country season begins at the Lidingöloppet

Bol opens her season with world 500m best in Boston

Bibic and Lahti dominate in Tilburg on the road to the European Cross

Tsegay opens European cross country season with decisive 30km victory at the Lidingöloppet

Sweden's famous Lidingoloppet races gets the 2021-22 World Athletics Cross Country Tour in Europe underway