Thierry Ndikumwenayo wins bronze
María Forero, silver in the Under-23 category
MADRID, 8 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish men’s team has won the gold medal in the European Cross Country Championships, which took place this Sunday in Antalya (Turkey), led by Thierry Ndikumwenayo who has also won bronze in the individual category, a test in which the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen has dominated.
Spain thus achieves a gold medal that has eluded it in teams since 2015, at the European Championships in Hyères (France), and which is the ninth in its men’s record after those achieved in Alnwick 1995, Thun 2001, Medulín 2002, Toro 2007, Brussels 2008, Dublin 2009, Budapest 2012 and Hyères 2015.
In the event, Spain took the choral victory by being the best in the global calculation of the three best times of its representatives: 22:31 by Ndikumwenayo, third; 22:44 by Nassim Hassaous, seventh; and 22:45 by Abdessamad Oukhelfen, eighth. In addition, Adel Mechaal finished tenth (22:47), Aarón Las Heras was fourteenth (22:51) and Fernando Carro, 38th (23:21).
Ndikumwenayo, champion a few days ago in the Cross of Itálica, was only surpassed by the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who crossed the finish line with a time of 22:16 to win his third gold, and by the Italian Yemaneberhan Crippa, who stopped the clock in 22:24. In this way, Ndikumwenayo achieves the first men’s individual medal for Spain in the championship since Mechaal’s bronze in 2017.
In the women’s event, the Olympic 10,000 meters runner-up, the Italian Nadia Battocletti, was proclaimed champion (25:43), while the German Koko Klosterhalfen (25:54) and the Turkish Yasemin Can (26:01) completed the podium .
Carolina Robles from Seville was the first Spaniard to cross the finish line, sixteenth (26:39). In addition, Carla Gallardo finished twenty-second; Idaira Prieto was twenty-fourth; Cristina Ruiz, thirty-first; Alicia Berzosa, forty-first; and Carla Arce, forty-fourth. By team, Spain finished eighth with 62 points, far behind Italy (33), which won gold.
For her part, María Forero from Huelva, individual and collective U-20 gold two years ago, took silver (21:21) in the women’s U-23 category, only behind the British Phoebe Anderson (21:16) and in a test in which her compatriots Claudia Corral (15th), Marta Serrano (25th), Ángela Viciosa (30th), Jihad Essoubai (38th) and Àmbar Tomás (39th). Meanwhile, Spain was fourth by team, just two points behind Germany, in a list led by Great Britain and Türkiye.
In the Sub-23 men’s team, the Spanish team, formed by Unai Naranjo (17º), Oscar Gaitán (21º), Álex Pintado (23º), Andrés Lara (38º), Gonçalo José Sousa (43º) and Marcos Crespo (51º), fue fifth, same as the combined Sub-20, with Miguel Ángel Martínez Chazarra (20º), Pablo Alba (25º), Jaime Migallón (28º), Brahim El Ourzadi (36º), Eric Loré (46º) and Paul Oriach (47º). Among women Sub-20, Nadia Soto (26ª), Laia Cariñanos (39ª), Anna Rovirosa (46ª), Candela Blázquez (47ª), June Sudupe (49ª) and Enma Méndez (82ª) were decimated.
Finally, in the mixed relay, Spain, with Jesús Gómez, Marta Pérez, Esther Guerrero and Adrián Ben, finished fourth despite being hampered by a hard fall by Pérez due to a log.