Butchart out to follow the Farah lead
10 Dicembre 2016Andrew Butchart leads the British delegation as team captain for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Chia held on Sunday 11 December
It is 10 years since a British man won the senior race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, not that he then disappeared from the scene. That, of course, was Mo Farah, and if it is an omen for his fellow teammates this weekend in Chia, his success came the last time these championships were held in Italy, as he triumphed in San Giorgio su Legnano. But the past should not need to come into the picture on Sunday such is the form being shown by leading Britons Andrew Butchart, their team captain, and Callum Hawkins, who will be part of what should be a brilliant finale to the action.
In a sizzling men's field, they will face Turkey's Polat Kemboi Arikan, the 2014 champion, and his teammate Kaan Kigen Ozbilen, while the strength of Spain is shown in the presence of Ilias Fifa, the European 5000m champion, and Antonio Abadia, who won 10,000m bronze in Amsterdam this summer as Arikan took gold. Butchart and Hawkins are joined in the British squad by Ben Connor, Dewi Griffiths, Adam Hickey, Ross Millington, Jonathan Taylor and Andy Vernon.
Butchart had this to say about being named team captain: “This is an amazing honour and something I am very grateful to have received. It has been a great year for me individually, so it will be a proud moment to captain the team at the European Cross Country Championships. I was surprised to receive the phone call asking me to be captain but it was an easy decision to accept it. We are sending arguably one of our strongest ever teams to the championships. It is great so many athletes stayed true to their roots and it shows just how important the cross country season is.”
A medal would cap a year to remember for Butchart, 25, who finished sixth in the Olympic 5000m in Rio in a personal best of 13:08.61 and ran his best times for the mile, 3000m and 10km. Hawkins, who specialises in the marathon, has had good news this week too ahead of the championships when he was named as the first member of the British team for next summer's IAAF World Championships in London.
Fifa and Ayad Lamdassem, the 2010 silver medallist, were both part of the Spanish team which won team gold in Hyères 12 months ago, while France will pose a threat aswell, with their squad including Florian Carvalho, who was sixth in 2015 and this summer finished fifth in the European 1500m final. A year before winning his gold in Samokov, Arikan took silver in Belgrade and one of the fascinating aspects on this race will be to see if he aims to make an early break in an attempt to take control. But such is the quality throughout, he may not be able to.
Senior Men's race starts at 13:10 (local time).
LAST YEAR'S RESULT
1 Ali Kaya (TUR) 29:20
2 Alemayehu Bezabeh (ESP) 29:31
3 Adel Mechaal (ESP) 29:51
TEAM
1 Spain 14 points
2 France 35
3 Great Britain 78
#chia2016 #EuroCross
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