Jakob Ingebrigtsen withdraws from Euro Cross in Portugal

Norwegian had hoped to win a fourth senior individual title at the championships but has pulled out to “fully focus on the 2026 season”.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen has announced that he won’t compete at next week’s European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa, Portugal (December 14).

Initially selected to represent Norway at the 31st edition of the championships, Ingebrigtsen had hoped to secure a fourth senior individual gold medal.

The 25-year-old would’ve become just the third four-time winner of the senior men’s race in Euro Cross history after Ukraine’s Sergiy Lebid and Portugal’s Paulo Guerra, the winners of nine and four senior titles respectively.

However Ingebrigtsen, who has been running at altitude in Sierra Nevada over the past few weeks, has withdrawn from the championships to “fully focus on the 2026 season”.

According to Norwegian outlet NRK, there is no new injury for Ingebrigtsen, now back in full training after recovering from Achilles problems this past summer.

Ingebrigtsen started the year well with 1500m and 3000m victories at the European and world indoor championships.

Forced to miss the entire Diamond League season, Ingebrigtsen opened up outdoors at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, where he was eliminated in the 1500m heats before finishing 10th in the 5000m final.