New records were the order of the day at the 2010 SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Albufeira, Portugal.
Serhiy Lebid won the senior men’s race for a record ninth time and extended his collection of medals to 12. He is also the only person to have competed in every single SPAR European Cross Country Championships since they were established in 1994.
Also deserving a mention is Italy’s Gabriele De Nard, who on this occasion finished 20th and has now competed for 14 years in the Championships, a figure only bettered by Lebid.
Great Britain’s 2004 and 2009 senior women’s champion Hayley Yelling-Higham finished 28th on this occasion but equalled the women’s record of 13 appearances, which was previously held by Belgium’s Anja Smolders, who ran in the Championships every year between 1994 and 2006.
Cross Country records
A total of 34 countries competed in the Championships – which beat the previous record of 33 Member Federations who were present at the 2008 SPAR European Championships in Brussels two years ago.
Overall, 468 competed in the six races, equalling the previous best at the 2006 and 2008 SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
There were 102 under-23 men on the start line, a massive increase on the previous best of 85, and also a near-record figure in the junior men’s race with 104 teenagers competing.