Week in Review: Grovdal makes history in European cross country champs
Norwegian wins third consecutive women's title, Schrub is first French runner to win men's championship
After watching Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal roll to a runaway victory in the women’s race of the European Athletics Cross Country Championships in Brussels on Sunday, I found myself wondering how she would stack up against some of the top competitors from Kenya and Ethiopia when the World championships are held in Belgrade, Serbia, on March 30 of next year.
Unfortunately, that match-up is not apt to happen, for the 33-year-old Norwegian has never run in the global title meet for cross country.
I do not know the reason/s why that is the case. And I would not envision Grovdal winning the senior women’s race if she were to run in next year’s meet. However, I do wonder if she would have enough talent and toughness to become the first European since the 2010 meet in Bydgoszcz, Poland, to place among the top 10 finishers.
Grovdal, who won her third consecutive European title on Sunday, is what I call a super-vet.
She has represented Norway in the past three Olympic Games and in eight of the last nine World Athletics Championships.
Her first experience in the World Championships on the track came in 2007 in Osaka, Japan, when she was eliminated in her qualifying heat of the 3,000-meter steeplechase when she was 17.
While her highest finishes since then have been a seventh place in the 5,000 meters and a ninth in the 10,000 in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, as well as an eighth in the 5,000 in last year’s World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, she seems to have a knack for cross country that is not always a given for distance runners who excel on the track.
The rain-drenched and sloppy six-loop, 9,000-meter layout at Laeken Park in which she competed on Sunday had several uphill and downhill sections, as well as tight turns that required competitors to negotiate them while running through two or three inches of muck.
However, none of that seemed to faze Grovdal.
She and Jessica Warner-Judd of Great Britain led the field through the first lap in 5:27 and she and Brit Abbie Donnelly were running 1-2 when they came through two laps in 11:08, just ahead of Nadia Battocletti of Italy (11:09) and Sarah Lahti of Sweden (11:10).
After Lahti dropped out of the race shortly after that with an injury, Grovdal and Donnelly broke away from Battocletti at the 13-minute mark, before the Norwegian gapped the Brit 14 minutes and 15 seconds into the race.
Grovdal had a six-second lead on second-place Donnelly and was 14 seconds up on third-place Battocletti when she completed the third lap in 16:45.
Her advantage only widened after that as she led Donnelly by 19 seconds when she came through four laps in 22:21 and she had a 41-second lead over Battocletti and Donnelly when she completed the fifth lap in 27:57.
Battocletti, who was running in her first senior continental title contest after posting victories in the U20 races in 2018 and ’19, and in the U23 competitions in 2021 and ’22, drew away from Donnelly during the final lap. But Grovdal continued to pull away from her as her winning time of 33:40 left her 45 seconds in front of the Italian’s 34:25 clocking.
Donnelly finished third in 34:42, followed by 39-year-old Fionnula McCormack of Ireland in fourth in 35:00, Warner-Judd in fifth in 35:20, and Lisa Rooms of Belgium in sixth in 35.29.
Great Britain easily won the team title with 18 points as Izzy Fry was the squad’s third — and final — scoring runner in 10th place in 35:37. Spain placed second with 37 points, followed by Belgium with 38, France with 39, and Italy with 55.
However, Grovdal was the star of the women’s competition as she became only the third runner — male or female — in the history of the meet to have won three or more consecutive senior titles.
The first runner to have accomplished that feat was Sergey Lebid of Ukraine, who won five consecutive men’s titles from 2001-05.
The second was Yasemin Can of Turkey, who won four women’s championships in a row from 2016-19.
“I was just focusing on every lap just to get to the finish line,” Grovdal said in an interview with Athletics Weekly. “I’m very happy I managed to do that.”
In an interview with European Athletics, Grovdal said that “everyone thinks that I am training in mud like this, but I don’t. Actually, I am a track athlete, but I have a background from cross country skiing. That's probably why I am good at cross country.”
She then added, “Of course, I will try to win a fourth title next year, but I think three-in-a-row is already amazing.”
Impressive statistics I: When Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal won the women’s title in the European Athletics Cross Country Championships in Brussels on Sunday, it was her third consecutive victory in the senior race.
It was also the eighth continental championship meet in a row in which she has earned an individual medal.
She won four consecutive bronze medals from 2015-18 before finishing second in 2019 and winning three consecutive gold medals in 2021, ’22, and this year.
The meet was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Impressive statistics II: Fionnula McCormack of Ireland was somewhat frustrated with her fourth-place finish in the women’s race of the European Athletics Cross Country Championships in Brussels on Sunday, but her performance capped a notable double over an eight-day stretch for the 39-year-old runner who gave birth to her third child six months earlier.
McCormack started the double by finishing 34th in the women’s division of the Valencia Marathon in Spain on Dec. 3 with a time of 2 hours 26 minutes 19 seconds that is expected to qualify her for her fifth Irish Olympic team.
Then came her race over the muddy, rain-soaked 9,000-meter course at Laeken Park on Sunday in which her 35:00 clocking left her 18 seconds behind bronze medalist Abbie Donnelly of Great Britain while recording her fifth fourth-place finish in the continental cross country championships.
McCormack, who made up 11 seconds on Donnelly over the last two laps of the six-lap race, has had a dozen top-10 finishes in the European Championships during her career. In addition to the five fourth-place performances, she won consecutive titles in 2011 and ’12, placed fifth in 2016, sixth in 2014, seventh in 2007 and ’22, and ninth in 2021.
“It’s hard to sum it up,” McCormack said in a post on the rte.ie site. “It’s never easy to come fourth and I’ve done it so many times at this stage. I really wanted to be on the podium against so I’m going to have to come back again now.
“You want to get on the podium so it’s a bit disappointing, but it was great to be in contention and to be chasing down the medals. The support out there was unbelievable, and it was a great race to be a part of. I had in my mind that I really wanted to do this, and my preparations were the same as two years ago so I was happy with my recovery and I think the race went pretty well.”
Historic victory: Yann Schrub became the first French runner in history to win a senior men’s title in the European Athletics Cross Country Championships in Brussels on Sunday when he clocked 30:17 over the muddy, rain-soaked 9,000-meter course at Laeken Park.
The 27-year-old Schrub had finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the two previous European title races that Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway had won rather easily.
Ingebrigtsen had planned to go for his third title in a row in this year’s meet, but injury issues led to his withdrawal last month and made the race for the men’s championship a more wide-open affair.
Yemaneberhan Crippa of Italy, who finish fourth in last year’s meet after winning the 10,000 in the European Athletics Championships fourth months earlier, was one of the pre-meet favorites on Sunday. However, he did not have a consistent performance and placed 13th.
Magnus Tuv Myhre of Norway, Hugo Milner of Great Britain, and Shrub were at the front of a loosely bunched 10-runner lead pack that completed the first three laps of the six-loop course in 14:56 before Milner and Schrub were at the front of a lead group of five runners that came through four laps in 20:05.
The Brit and the Frenchman had a five-second lead over third-place Myhre 800 meters later. But Schrub separated himself from Milner during the ensuing two-minute stretch as he came though five laps in 25:09, followed by Milner in 25:15, and Myhre and Belgian Robin Hendrix in 25:18.
Although Schrub’s lead had grown to 10 seconds with 700 meters left in the race, he crossed the finish line three seconds in front of second-place Mhyre (30:20) after giving up much of his advantage during the final 50 meters of the contest while he slowed down to grab a French flag from a spectator and wave to the crowd while celebrating his impending victory.
Hendrix finished third in 30:22, followed by Milner in fourth in 30:27, Tadese Getahon of Israel in fifth in 30:33, and John Heymans of Belgium in sixth in 30:34.
The Belgium team, running on its home soil, also received an 11th-place finish from Isaac Kimeli in 30:46 to defeat France, 20-26, for the team title. Norway placed third with 32 points, followed by Ireland with 45 and Great Britain with 54.
“I feel very good,” Schrub said in an interview with Athletics Weekly. “It’s a dream for me today. For me, the first place is very good.”
He later added, “I am very proud for myself. I am proud for my coach, manager, and my family.”
The 28-year-old Hendrix was ecstatic with both his individual bronze medal and Belgium’s team gold medal, and a post on his Instagram account was as follows: Bronze medal and a golden team medal at the European Cross Country Championships in Brussels 🥉🥇
Incredible, I have no words for this!
A historic day for Belgian cross country running! 🇧🇪🔥
I would like to thank everyone who supports me throughout my career. This one means a lot for me!
De cross is van ons!
🖤💛❤️
Adding to its laurels: Great Britain had entered the European Athletics Cross Country Championships in Brussels on Sunday having won more medals than any other country in the 29-year history of the meet.
The Brits added to their total by winning a record 11 individual and team medals — including seven gold medals — during the meet at Laeken Park that was comprised of seven races.
In addition to the senior men’s and women’s competition, there were men’s and women’s races at the U20 (under 20) and U23 levels, as well as a mixed 4 x 1,500-meter relay at the senior level in which each team consisted of two men and two women.
Will Baricoat and Megan Keith led Great Britain to U23 team titles by winning their respective 7,000-meter races in 23:42 and 25:32.
In the men’s U20 5,000-meter race, Axel Vang Christensen of Denmark edged pre-meet favorite Niels Laros of the Netherlands, 16:09-16:10, for the individual title while Ireland, paced by Nicholas Griggs’ third-place finish in 16:24, edged Great Britain, 22-24, for the team championship.
Innes Fitzgerald of Great Britain, 17, had a 19-second margin of victory in winning the 5,000-meter women’s U20 race in 18:19 and leading her team to a 22-34 win over second-place Germany.
In the mixed 4 x 1,500 relay, a French quartet of Berenice Cleyet-Merle — who turned in a 5:12 split on her leg — Antoine Senard (4:30), Sarah Madeleine (5:23), and Alexis Miellet (4:39) won the mixed 4 x 1,500 relay in 19:44, followed by the Netherlands in 19:46 and Great Britain in 19:48.
End of the road: The prep cross country season in the U.S. came to a close in the Foot Locker Nationals in San Diego on Saturday when senior Drew Griffith of Butler High in Pennsylvania and sophomore Elizabeth Leachman of Champion in Boerne, Texas, won the boys’ and girls’ individual titles, respectively.
Griffith timed 15:06.9 over the two-loop 5,000-meter course at Morley Field to finish more than five seconds in front of fellow senior — and University of Notre Dame signee — Ryan Pajak of Ringgold in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, who clocked 15:12.1 in second place. Sophomore Tamrat Gavenas of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, placed third in 15:16.6.
Griffith had ranged from fourth to seventh place during each of the first five half-mile points on the course. But he caught leader Ty Steorts of Hurricane, West Virginia, 12 minutes and 45 seconds into the race and took the lead for good 15 seconds later while becoming the first Pennsylvanian to win the boys’ title in the 44-year history of the meet.
Leachman had finished 15th in the girls’ race of the Nike Cross Nationals meet in Portland, Oregon, on Dec. 2 after blasting out to a lead of nearly 15 seconds after the first three kilometers of the 5,000-meter race. But she ran more under control on Saturday as she was nearly 10 seconds behind leader Rachel Forsyth of Pioneer in Ann Arbor, Michigan, when she came through the first mile in 5:10.7.
She closed her deficit to a little less than seven seconds a half mile later and was a stride in front of Forsyth when she came through two miles in 10:43.8.
Her lead grew progressively larger after that as her winning time of 16:50.7 left her well in front of Allie Zealand, a homeschooled senior from Lynchburg, Virginia, who finished second in 17:04.5. Forsyth placed third in 17:08.3 after having finished fifth in the Nike Cross Nationals race.
Three runners from the Southern Section of California competed in the girls’ race, with junior Maya Luna de Brouwer of La Canada finishing 24th in 18:26.7, senior Melisse Djomby Enwaye of Corona del Mar in Newport Beach placing 26th in 18:32.7, and junior Reena Hsieh of Arcadia completing the course in 28th place in 18:34.3.
De Brouwer had worked her way up from 31st place at the mile to 20th at the 2.5-mile mark, but she lost four spots during the remainder of the race.
Not a surprise: The western part of the U.S. produces some of the top prep distance runners in the nation on a year-in and year-out basis. But the West Region teams finished a distant fourth — and last — in both the boys’ and girls’ standings of the Foot Locker Nationals in San Diego on Saturday.
There was no lack of effort by the 10 runners on the boys’ and girls’ teams from the region. But with the West Regional qualifying meet annually being held at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California, on the same day as the Nike Cross Nationals meet in Portland, Oregon, it’s not possible for many of the top runners from states such as Utah, California, and Oregon to advance to the Foot Locker Nationals.
As an example, eight of the top 19 finishers in the boys’ race of the Nike Cross Nationals meet were from high schools in the West region states of Utah, California, or Oregon, and senior JoJo Jourdon of Olympus in Holladay, Utah, was the individual champion.
The numbers were similar in the girls’ race at the Nike Cross Nationals as eight of the top 20 finishers came from the West region states of California, Idaho, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, or Washington.
Record race: Japan’s all-time list in the men’s 10,000 meters underwent a wholesale rewriting in the Japan Championships 10,000 meet in Tokyo on Sunday.
Competing in the National Stadium that hosted the athletics competition during the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, the top three finishers in the men’s race broke the previous national record and the fourth- and fifth-place runners moved to fourth and seventh, respectively, on the all-time national performer list.
Kazuya Shiojiri, 27, won the race in 27:09.80 to crush the previous national record of 27:18.75 set by Akira Aizawa in 2020 and annihilate his previous best of 27:45.18 from 2021.
Tomoki Ota and Aizawa also bettered Aizawa’s previous national record by finishing second and third, respectively, in times of 27:12.63 and 27:13.04.
They were followed by Ren Tazawa and Ayumu Kobayashi, who set personal bests of 27:22.31 and 27:28.13 while finishing in fourth and fifth place.
Despite the plethora of fast times, there was some disappointment that none of the runners met or equalled the qualifying standard of 27:00.00 for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
“My goal was to win the race while breaking the Japan record, and even though the time isn’t what I had hoped for, I’m happy,” Shiojiri said in a post on The Japan Times site.
Quick debut: Freshman JaMeesia Ford of the University of South Carolina got her collegiate career off to a rip-roaring start when she win the women’s 300 meters in 35.83 seconds in the Clemson Opener indoor meet in Clemson, South Carolina, last Friday.
Ford’s time in the infrequently-run event broke the U20 (under 20) worlFord’s time in the infrequently-run event broke the U20 (under 20) world record of 36.12 that had been set by Sydney McLaughlin of the University of Kentucky in 2017 and it was tied for the second-fastest time in collegiate history behind the 35.80 performance that Abby Steiner of Kentucky had produced in 2021.
Ford, who had run personal bests of 11.49 in the 100, 23.06 in the 200, and 51.77 in the 400 during her senior season at Fayetteville (N.C.) High School, had originally committed to Kentucky. But she de-committed and ended up at South Carolina after Kentucky assistant coach Tim Hall was hired as the head coach of the Gamecocks’ Track & Field and Cross Country program in June.
Hall had been at Kentucky for five years before being hired at South Carolina.
No change expected: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed last week that Russian and Belarussian athletes will be allowed to take part in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris as neutral competitors.
However, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said that Russian and Belarussian athletes will not be allowed to appear in any athletics/track and field events in the Olympics.
“We have a fixed position. That position hasn’t altered,” Coe said when asked if the IOC’s position would alter World Athletics’ view that Russian and Belarussian athletes should not be allowed to compete in international track and field events because of Russia’s illegal invasion of — and continuing war in — Ukraine, as well as Belarus’ material support of the Russian government’s actions in that regard.
Coe later added that “You may well see some neutral athletes from Russia and Belarus in Paris. They just won’t be in athletics… And the position that our sport took and consistently taken is unchanged.”
The IOC originally banned athletes from Russia and Belarus after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022. But the IOC now plans to let athletes from those countries take part in the Games as neutral competitors as long as they agree to do so without any national flags, emblems, or anthems being involved with their participation.
Last week the IOC said the following: “The executive board of the IOC has decided that individual neutral athletes [AINs] who have qualified through the existing qualification systems of the International Federations on the field of play will be declared eligible to compete at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in accordance with the conditions outlined.
“AINs are athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport. The strict eligibility conditions based on the recommendations issued by the IOC executive board on March 28 2023 for international federations and international sports event organisers will be applied.”
Despite the IOC’s view, World Athletics is the global governing body for athletics/track and field and it therefore has the final decision about whether Russian or Belarussian athletes will be allowed to compete in the Olympic Games in Paris next year.
Turning pro: Katelyn Tuohy, a four-time NCAA individual champion for North Carolina State University, announced on social media last week that she will run professionally for Adidas, thus forgoing the remaining year and a half of her collegiate eligibility.
Tuohy has played a critical role in North Carolina State winning the last three women’s team titles in the NCAA cross country championships.
She was the team’s No. 2 runner when she placed 15th in the 2021 championships and she won the individual title last year before finishing fifth in last month’s meet in Earlysville, Virginia, in which the Wolfpack edged top-ranked Northern Arizona, 123-124, for the team crown. The victory made NC State the first program to win three consecutive women’s titles since Stanford from 2005-07.
In addition to her individual title in cross country last year, Touhy won the NCAA title in the 5,000 during the 2022 outdoor track and field championships and in the 3,000 and 5,000 in the national indoor meet in March of this year.
She holds collegiate records in the outdoor 5,000 at 15:03.12, and in the indoor 1,500 (4:06.49), mile (4:24.26), and 3,000 (8:35.20).
In one section of her post on Instagram, she wrote that “I owe a big thank you to the university, the coaching staff, the support staff, my teammates, and all of those who have been a part of my time here at NC State. Thank you for making my dreams come true 🫶🏻”
Hanging up her spikes: Anzhelika Sidorova of Russia, the 2019 World Athletics champion in the women’s pole vault and one of four women to have cleared five meters (16 feet 5 inches) or higher in the event, has announced her retirement.
The 32-year-old Sidorova, who won the silver medal in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, had given birth to her first child, a boy, earlier this year.
In a social media post, she wrote that “I think many of you already understood what this was all about, and it seems that it is time to put an end to it. All year, from the moment I found out I was pregnant, I persuaded myself to take my time, gave myself a chance to change my mind, but it didn’t work. Unfortunately, I’ve stopped enjoying track and field completely over the last few years. So yeah, I’m officially ending my sports career. I will not be going back to the sector.”
Sidorova, a two-time silver medalist in the World Indoor Championships, competed internationally as an authorized neutral athlete from 2017-21 because Russia’s athletics federation has been suspended since 2015 due to widespread doping violations by many of the country’s track and field athletes. She cleared a personal best of 5.01 (16-5¼) in 2021 and ranks second on the all-time world performer list behind countrywoman Yelena Isinbayeva, who raised the world record to 5.06 (16-7¼) in 2009.
Sidorova had the highest vault in the world last year at 4.91 (16-1¼), but no Russian track and field athletes were allowed to compete internationally by World Athletics due to the Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.
