It is a big week for indoor athletics, but it was also a big weekend for national cross country championships – and one that saw Portugal’s Ana Dulce Felix once more demonstrate her amazing versatility.
The European 10,000m champion from Helsinki in 2012 remains one of Europe’s most consistent athletes on the tough terrains of grass and in Pombal, she became national champion for the fifth time.
A bronze medallist at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Belgrade in December, Felix triumphed on Sunday in 32:02 over 8km as she beat Salome Roche by six seconds with Catarina Ribeiro in third in 33:03.
As the men of Bikila Atletismo and women of Atletismu Santutxu won Spanish Club Cross Country crowns, Lamdassem was first over the 11.25km course in 24:01, with Eritrea’s Kidane Tadese – a guest runner – second in 24:04 from Antonio Jimenez in 24:06 and Alemayehu Bezabeh next in 24:10.
As Fabienne Schlumpf won over 8km at the Swiss Cross Country Championships in Zurich in 28:35, many eyes were also on the woman who finished second in 29:08 – that being Nicola Spirig, the Olympic gold medallist from London 2012 in the triathlon.
It will be interesting to see whether Spirig now looks to make the team for the distance races at the European Athletics Championships in the city in August.
