Chia awaits the brilliance of Carton

05 Ottobre 2016

This time last year, Louise Carton was just preparing for the winter season, the prospect ahead of mud-splattered races, cold mornings and tricky terrains. They proved to be the greatest few months of her career, topped by her brilliant victory in the under-23 race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Hyeres. The countdown is now on to this year’s event in Chia - and the chance for the Belgian star to make the podium again. Carton is only 22 and in Chia, she could either bid to defend her title or move up to the senior event after another good summer where she was seventh in the final of the 5000m at the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam.

It is just over two months until this coastal region in southern Sardinia stages the 2016 SPAR European Cross Country Championships and ahead for so many runners is the busy winter circuit which leads to this last major international athletics competition of the year. Carton had such an amazing 2015 that she won the title of female Belgium Young Talent of the Year at the country's prestigious Golden Spike awards. A silver medallist over 5000m at the European Athletics U23 Championships in the summer, she moved to the winter where she was the dominant force in the Joker+ CrossCup before confirming that form in a sensational race at the Euro Cross.

Over 5.94km, Carton ensured she had just enough left to hold off the challenge of the Netherland's Jip Vastenburg, with both women given the same time of 19:46. After her victory, where Serbia's Amela Terzic (19:49) was third and Great Britain's Laura Muir, who has just had an amazing summer on the track, was fourth (19:53), Carton said: “It’s amazing. I knew I was strong but the other girls are too and I did not know how they were going to run. I felt good. I always stress before a race but thanks to the experience, I know how to use it positively.” She then took that success back into the Joker+ CrossCup series where three months later she was crowned champion after winning the main race at the Belgian Cross Country Championships in Wachtebeke.

Across Europe, all nations are preparing for Chia and Austria have already pre-selected four athletes for the championships, with Brenton Rowe and Jennifer Wenth named in their senior teams along with Luca Sinn (U23) and Lena Millonig (U20). Chia is the first occasion Italy has hosted this competition since San Giorgio su Legnano in 2006. And what a significant championships that proved to be in the young life of Mo Farah, the Great Britain star who, at the age of 23, won the senior men’s race for the first major gold medal of what has become one of the greatest careers in athletics history. How many stars will be born on 11 December?

Condividi con

Tweet

Seguici su: