Dublin 2021 (ph. Colombo/FIDAL)

Piemonte 2022: 622 athletes from 40 countries

FINAL ENTRIES | EUROPEAN CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP PIEMONTE 2022 – LA MANDRIA PARK

The numbers: 622 athletes, of which 338 men and 284 women, representing 40 countries. European Athletics disclosed the list of athletes participating to the 28th edition of the European Cross Country Championships, scheduled for 11th December at La Mandria Park in Venaria Reale (Turin). On the ‘final entries’ there are the six European champions of last edition in Dublin: the Norwegians Jakob Ingerbrigtsen and Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal who won in senior category, the U23’s Nadia Battocletti and Charles Hicks (Great Britain), who will try to confirm their performances in the same category, and the U20 champions Axel Vang Christensen (Denmark) and Megan Keith (Great Britain), who is no more a junior and therefore will take part at the U23 race.

In the men senior race, beyond the phenomenon Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who won the World Championships this year in Eugene in the 5000m race, there are his brothers Filip and Henrik, the Spanish Mohamed Katir, the Turkish Aras Kaya, who won this competition twice, the French Yann Schrub, all opponents to the Italian Yeman Crippa, European 10.000m champion, and his teammates among which Iliass Aouani and the European steeplechase bronze medalist Osama Zoghlami. Among women, the main opponents to the reigning champion Grøvdal will be the Germans Kostanze Klosterhalfen and Alina Reh, the Turkish Yasemin Can, four times winner, and the Swedish Meraf Bahta.

Among the European golden medalist in Munich (together with Crippa, Ingebrigtsen, Klosterhalfen and Can) there also is the Finnish Topi Raitanen, winner in the 3000m steeplechase, called up from his national team for the mixed relay. Insight: the more experienced athlete is the 48-years-old Maurice Turnock (Gibraltar), the youngest is Alexandra Maria Hudea (Romania) who turns 16 on the 3rd December.