Grovdal hopes Chia will mean more glory
06 Dicembre 2016Norway's Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal won bronze in the senior women's race at last year's SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Hyères
It is another big week in what has been a year to remember for Norway’s Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal. Twelve months after winning bronze in the senior women’s race in Hyères, Grovdal will aim to end 2016 with another medal at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Chia this Sunday. Making the podium last December on the terrain of France was a real statement of her presence on the distance-running scene - and she then followed it up successfully in the summer. On the track in Amsterdam, Grovdal secured bronze again, this time in the 10,000m at the European Athletics Championships with an equally impressive performance. Now for the Euro Cross again, where the women’s senior race is always one of the toughest - and Chia has the prospect of being something really special.
Grovdal will face Turkey’s Yasemin Can, who won gold in Amsterdam, along with Ireland’s double champion Fionnuala McCormack and defending champion Gemma Steel, of Great Britain. In Hyères, Grovdal had too much for McCormack (fourth in 26:00) and Steel (eighth in 26:25) as she took third in 25:57 as the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan won (25:47) from Britain’s Kate Avery (25:55). It was a similar story in Amsterdam as Grovdal ran a personal best of 31:23.45 for bronze with McCormack (31:30.74) in fourth again as Can triumphed (31:12.86). Grovdal will be part of a team of eight Norwegian athletes in Sardinia, with their squad including Sondre Nordstad Moen in the men’s senior race and Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the junior men’s race.
Switzerland will have 16 athletes at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, with Olympic steeplechase finalist Fabienne Schlumpf and Martina Tresch in the senior women’s race, while teenager Delia Sclabas will be chasing more success in the junior event. Sclabas, who only celebrated her 16th birthday less than a month ago, was one of the stars of this summer’s first European Athletics Youth Championships in Tbilisi where she won double gold with victory in the 1500m (4:22.51) and 3000m (9:23.44), both personal best times.
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