Katir threatened Ingebrigtsen’s reign on his debut in a European cross

Mohamed Katir, European runner-up in the 5000m and world bronze in the 1500m outdoors, will test Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s reign in his European cross country debutwhile in the women’s category Turkish-born Kenyan Yasemir Can will be looking for his fifth continental crown against Nordic Karoline Grovdal, winner of the last edition.

La Mandria Park, in the north outside of Turin, hosts this European cross country where 555 athletes (303 men and 252 women) from forty countries will participate.

In the absolute men’s category (10,000 meters) the favorite is Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who wants to repeat the success of 2021 and close a year after his success in the 10,000 meters of the Eugene World Cup and the double in the 1,500 and 5,000 at the European Championship in Munich.

Ingebrigtsen’s two main rivals in the role are Mohamed Katir, who faces his debut in a European cross country convinced of giving fear to the Norwegian, whom he did not beat last summer in either the European Championship or the World Cup , and the Italian Yemeneberhan Crippa, who will run in front of his fans and come to the event endorsed by his victory in the 10,000 meters of the European outdoors.

Katir was joined by the first three Spanish classifieds in the final European cross country in Dublin where Spain won silver with the team. Nassim Hassaous finished seventh in Ireland, followed by two-time national champion Carlos Mayo (11th) and Abdessamad Oukhelfen (12th). The team is completed by Roberto Alaiz, who returns to a European cross-country after seven years, and Sergio Paniagua, second in Alcobendas.

In the women’s category (8,000 meters) the favorite is Turkish-born Kenyan Yasemir Cangold in the 10,000 and silver in the 5,000 at the European Championship in Munich, hoping to regain the crown he wore for four years with four consecutive victories between 2016 and 2019.

Her main rival is the Norwegian Karoline Grovdalcontinental cross country winner in 2021, and the German Koster Klosterhalfen, whose list of success includes the 5,000 European Championship in Munich and the victory in the Valencia Half Marathon with 1h05:41.

The Spanish team consists of Irene Sánchez-Escribano, in what will be her third European Championship, Carolina Robles, current Spanish 3000m hurdles champion, Marta García, current ‘queen’ of the national 5000m, newcomer Isabel Barreiro, Catalan Naima Ait Alibou, ninth in Atapuerca, and European 1500 m indoor finalist Águeda Marqués.

The aim of the Spanish team is to equal or improve the result of the last European Championship in Dublin in 2021 which resulted in two silver medals, one for the absolute men’s team and another for the women’s sub20.

In the mixed relay (4×1,500m) Italy compete in front of their fans with Pietro Arese, Federica del Buono and Gaia Sabbatinithree distance specialists, and Belgium is repeating a similar team with which they took bronze in 2021.

The Spanish relay is led by Jesús Gómez, triple European bronze medalist (twice 1500 m in indoor track and once in mixed relay), accompanied by 800 Olympic and world finalist Adrián Ben, the veteran Solange Pereira, who has three medals with mixed relay in Europe (the bronzes of 2017 and 2019 and the gold of 2018), and the rookie Rosalía Tárraga, who recently won in Santiponce.

These Europeans also include the U20 men’s and women’s and U23 men’s and women’s categories.

Spain added 77 medals -31 individual and 46 by teams- in the history of the European Championship Cross Country, where in 26 of the 27 editions he climbed the podium at least once.

MANDRIA PARK

The circuit, where green meadows and woods come together, is located around the castle of La Mandria, located at the top of the route, a building from the second half of the 19th century, former royal residence house. of the Savoy family and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1997.

The circuit has two routes, a short lap of 1,000 meters and a long lap of 1,500 meterswith a grass surface, mud if the weather is bad, and artificial grass at those points where the ground is asphalt or asphalt.

The altimetric profile of the long route is almost flat except for the ascent and descent to the castle, which is raised about 28 meters from the flat part in the so-called Pascolo meadow. Going up and down is a real mountain pass.