Nadia Battocletti and Megan Keith finish 1-2 at Euro Cross

The Brit recovers from a fall at the start of the race to secure silver, while Battocletti capped off a spectacular season by retaining her senior title in Lagoa.

Nadia Batocletti and Megan Keith placed 1-2 in a dramatic senior women’s race at the 31st edition of the European Cross Championships (December 14).

Less than 10 seconds had passed when Keith, who had arrived in Portugal off the back of three fourth place finishes on the World Cross Country Tour, hit the floor after an athlete ahead of her fell down.

Keith is not an athlete to give up easily though and swiftly made her way through the pack to join Italy’s Nadia Battocletti and Turkey’s Yasemin Can at the front of the field.

Opinion wasn’t short when it came to the make-up of the course – it started and finished on grass but the rest was similar to an old cinder track – but its hybrid nature played to Keith’s advantage.

For a while it looked like the Brit might even take down Battocletti to take the gold medal but the Italian, gunning for her second consecutive senior individual gold medal at Euro Cross, was far too strong in the latter stages.

The Italian, who last year became the first female in history to secure golds at U20, U23 and senior level at the championships, clocked 24:52 around the 7290m long course.

Keith crossed the line in 25:07, finishing six seconds ahead of Can. Belgium took home the team gold medal ahead of Great Britain.

“I was quite nervous on the start line as we’d seen the beginning of the under-20s as they were fighting on it and there were bodies going down,” Keith said. “I knew that people were going to be aggressive. I thought I had judged it perfectly but someone went down in front of me and I had no choice but to crash on the top of her. I was very lucky to only come away with a couple of scrapes and not get trampled on!

“That wasn’t in my game-plan to start with a 10-metre handicap so I ended up running around like a crazy lady to find my way up where I wanted to be. I reset after one lap so it felt like a four-lap race in the end!”

Even though she was pushed by both Keith and Can, victory was never really in doubt for Battocletti. The Italian has now won eight titles (both individual and team) at Euro Cross.

“I’m so happy as it’s my sixth individual title here at Euro Cross,” Battocletti told AW. “It was such a surprise for me as I started winning these titles back in 2018 as a junior! My journey has been really crazy as you have so many strong athletes in each age category. Whoever wins here is the champion of all disciplines.

“I thought 2024 as a season was good, given I got a silver medal at the Olympics, but 2025 has been amazing! I can’t find the words to describe the feeling. I’ve been so consistent and now it’s about finishing my studies later this month [Battocletti is completing her degree in Building Engineering and Architecture at the University of Trento].”

The senior men’s race was equally as dramatic as the women’s event, with all of the podium spots going right down to the wire.

On top of the myriad of challenges that athletes faced around the course – including obstacles, sharp turns and changing surfaces – they also had to deal with a steep hill in the last 30 metres before the finish line.

Whether it was brutal enough to nickname it “heartbreak hill” is another question, but it certainly played a part in the senior men’s event.

For most of the race it was pretty obvious that gold and silver would likely go to Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo and France’s Jimmy Gressier, who had shot out to the front after a few laps and never looked back.

As the pair entered the final stretch Ndikumwenayo, who claimed bronze at last year’s edition of Euro Cross, kicked hard and edged out the world 10,000m champion by just three seconds, with the duo running 22:05 and 22:08 respectively.

The final podium spot was even tighter between Great Britain’s Scott Beattie and Switzerland’s Dominic Lobalu. The bronze medal went down to a photo finish after the pair were both given the same mark of 22:23. Spain’s strength in depth saw them secure the team gold medal.

Nick Griggs upgraded his silver medal from Antalya to gold in Lagoa with a dominant victory in the under-23 race.

The Irish athlete placed second to Will Barnicoat in a close finish at last year’s edition but this time round made sure he would take the win and beat France’s Aurélien Radja by 12 seconds.

Griggs looked supreme around the twisty 5790m course and clocked 17:47. Barniocat, who arrived in Lagoa as the double defending champion, had missed Liverpool Cross Challenge because of an injury and spent the majority of November cross-training ahead of Euro Cross. He ended up finishing 14th with Matt Ramsden, who won in Liverpool, the first Brit home in sixth.

Ireland secured two gold medals in the men’s under-23 race with the nation taking home the team title as well.

Spain’s Maria Forero was the favourite to take the title in the women’s race and she delivered when it counted, getting the better of Finland’s Ilona Mononen by five seconds. France took home the team gold medal.

Innes FitzGerald waved goodbye to the under-20 age category in some style with yet another commanding display at Euro Cross.

The Brit had already impressed at both the Cardiff and Liverpool Cross Challenge last month, beating her opposition by 50 and 59 seconds respectively.

She was once again unopposed at Euro Cross and triumphed by an astonishing 32 seconds in Lagoa, the biggest winning margin for the women’s under-20 race in the history of the championships.

FitzGerald, now a triple European under-20 champion at Euro Cross, will compete in the under-23 category at next year’s edition in Belgrade.

“Coming over the finish line I was like ‘that was tough’,” she said. Going up the hill three times didn’t look that much but it made it that extra bit tricky. People yesterday were talking about wearing road shoes but by the third lap it was getting churned up and it felt quite sandy. That required a lot more effort.

“It went off so hard I was thinking I was having a bad day! It took me a bit longer to get to the front that I’d have liked. I was cautious not to tear off the line. I naturally like the grass more but the nature of cross-country means you have to work with what you’ve got.”

Belgium’s Willem Renders won the men’s under-20 race, seeing off Spain’s Oscar Gaitan by just one second.

Since European Athletics introduced the mixed relay to Euro Cross back at Šamorín 2017, it has always produced some of the most dramatic moments at the championships.

That was once again the case in Lagoa as Isaac Nader worked his way through the pack to secure the host nation a silver medal.

Portugal were 14 seconds off the leaders and in sixth position when Nader took over but the world 1500m champion showed why he won the title in Tokyo with an authoritative performance.

He overtook Great Britain’s Callum Elson on the last lap but couldn’t do enough to chase down defending champions Italy.

Italy won by four seconds to Portugal and Great Britain edged out France by just one second for the final podium spot.

With the race being a 4x1500m it meant that most athletes competing were middle-distance runners and the British quartet was made up of Elson, Jack Higgins, Holly Dixon and Ava Lloyd.