2010 European Cross Country Championships
Organisers	EAA
Edition	17th
Date	12 December
Host city	Albufeira, Portugal
Events	6
Distances	9870 m – Men 8170 m – Women 8170 m – U23 men 6070 m – U23 women 6070 m – Junior men 3970 m – Junior women
Participation	468 athletes from 34 nations
Official website	Albufeira2010
← 2009 Dublin 2011 Velenje →

The 2010 European Cross Country Championships was a continental cross country running competition that took place on 12 December in Albufeira, Portugal. It was the second time that the country hosted the event, building upon the 1997 edition held in Oeiras.

Serhiy Lebid won the men's race for his ninth victory of the championship – a record for the competition. France took the men's team title. Jessica Augusto comprehensively won the women's race for the host nation and also led the Portuguese team to a team gold medal. At total of 468 athletes from a record number of 34 nations competed at the event.^[1]

The race took place on a purpose-built course near the city, which also hosts the annual Almond Blossom Cross Country. Albufeira was chosen as the host at the 120th European Athletics Council Meeting in October 2008, defeating a rival bid from Velenje (which was chosen for the 2011 edition instead).^[2]

Hayley Yelling entered the race as the defending women's champion while Alemayehu Bezabeh, the reigning men's champion, did not take part in the competition.^[3] High-profile investigations into doping in Spain immediately preceded the championships and Bezabeh was among the athletes implicated in Operación Galgo.^[4][5] As both the reigning champion and the 2009 silver medallist Mo Farah were absent, the men's race was seen as a relatively open competition, with Ukrainian Serhiy Lebid, Spanish runners Ayad Lamdassem and Jesús España being the foremost protagonists.^[6] The withdrawal of Rosa Morató (runner-up in 2009) left Jessica Augusto as the provisional favourite for the women's race.^[7] Forming a strong team, three other Portuguese runners (Ana Dulce Félix, Marisa Barros and Sara Moreira) were expected to challenge for medals, as were Yelling and Adriënne Herzog (also directly implicated in Operación Galgo), who was third the previous year.^[6][8]

The men's race remained relatively tight until the final lap. Six men were on equal footing at the bell: Lebid, Lamdassem, French duo Morhad Amdouni and Abdellatif Meftah, and Rui Pedro Silva and Yousef El Kalai, both representing the hosts. Lamdassem was the first to move away from the pack, seizing the lead, and only Lebid followed. The Ukrainian overhauled Lamdassem in the final stages and maintained a clear lead to win his ninth title – a record for the competition. Lamdassem just held off a late sprint from El Kalai to take the runner-up spot. Meftah and Amdouni finished shortly after for fourth and fifth, leading the French men to a team victory.^[9][10]

Jessica Augusto made her gold medal intentions known as she took the lead in the opening stages. The Portuguese athlete never relinquished the position and produced a largely unrivalled, solo performance. Spaniard Alessandra Aguilar shadowed her in the middle part of the race but later dropped out of contention. With Augusto clear in front, Binnaz Uslu, Ana Dulce Félix, Fionnuala Britton and Tetyana Holovchenko battled for the minor medals in the second half of the race. Félix and Uslu fought for the runner-up spot with the Turk eventually winning out. Augusto's lead was so significant that she slowed and celebrated throughout the home straight, still crossing the line with a five-second advantage. Félix took the bronze just ahead Britton, helping the Portuguese women to the team gold medal, and Holovchenko rounded out the top five.^[9][11]

Hassan Chahdi of France took the men's under-23 title while Ethiopian-born Meryem Erdoğan won the women's under-23 section for Turkey. The junior races were won by Abdelaziz Merzougui and Charlotte Purdue.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Individual race

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time (m:s)
	Serhiy Lebid	Ukraine	29:15
	Ayad Lamdassem	Spain	29:18
	Yousef El Kalai	Portugal	29:19
4	Abdellatif Meftah	France	29:21
5	Morhad Amdouni	France	29:21
6	Andrea Lalli	Italy	29:28
7	Eduardo Mbengani	Portugal	29:29
8	Rui Pedro Silva	Portugal	29:32
9	Jesús España	Spain	29:32
10	Mokhtar Benhari	France	29:34
11	Yevgeniy Rybakov	Russia	29:35
12	Steffen Uliczka	Germany	29:36

Team race

Rank	Team	Points
	France Meftah Amdouni Benhari Driss El Himer	33
	Portugal El Kalai Mbengani Rui Pedro Silva Rui Silva	35
	Spain Lamdassem España Ricardo Serrano Francisco Javier López	58
4	Italy	96
5	United Kingdom	99
6	Russia	106
7	Ireland	142
8	Denmark	181

• Totals: 75 entrants, 74 starters, 71 finishers, 10 teams.^[16]

Individual race

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time (m:s)
	Jéssica Augusto	Portugal	26:52
	Binnaz Uslu	Turkey	26:57
	Ana Dulce Félix	Portugal	26:59
4	Fionnuala Britton	Ireland	26:59
5	Tetyana Holovchenko	Ukraine	27:04
6	Marisa Barros	Portugal	27:06
7	Hatti Dean	United Kingdom	27:08
8	Alessandra Aguilar	Spain	27:09
9	Sara Moreira	Portugal	27:26
10	Ana Dias	Portugal	27:27
11	Fatiha Klilech-Fauvel	France	27:27
12	Maria Sig Møller	Denmark	27:31

Team race

Rank	Team	Points
	Portugal Augusto Félix Barros Moreira	19
	United Kingdom Dean Louise Damen Stephanie Twell Helen Clitheroe	65
	Spain Aguilar Diana Martín Nuria Fernández Irene Pelayo	72
4	France	79
5	Russia	101
6	Ireland	132
7	Italy	147

• Totals: 49 entrants, 49 starters, 47 finishers, 7 teams.^[17]

Individual race

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time (m:s)
	Hassan Chahdi	France	24:11
	Florian Carvalho	France	24:14
	Yegor Nikolayev	Russia	24:15
4	Jeroen d'Hoedt	Belgium	24:23
5	Ricardo Mateus	Portugal	24:25
6	Siarhei Platonau	Belarus	24:28
7	Tiago Costa	Portugal	24:32
8	Sindre Buraas	Norway	24:34
9	Ricky Stevenson	United Kingdom	24:34
10	Florian Orth	Germany	24:44
11	David McCarthy	Ireland	24:46
12	Sebastián Martos	Spain	24:47

Team race

Rank	Team	Points
	Ireland McCarthy Brendan O'Neill Michael Mulhare David Rooney	60
	France Chahdi Carvalho Abdelatif Hadjam Etienne Diemunsch	78
	Spain Martos Antonia Abadía Javier García Víctor Corrales	79
4	United Kingdom	104
5	Norway	112
6	Belgium	114
7	Portugal	133
8	Germany	134

• Totals: 102 entrants, 102 starters, 96 finishers, 16 teams.^[18]

Individual race

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time (m:s)
	Meryem Erdoğan	Turkey	20:08
	Cristina Jordán	Spain	20:17
	Emma Pallant	United Kingdom	20:28
4	Hanna Nosenko	Ukraine	20:36
5	Roxana Birca	Romania	20:39
6	Sandra Eriksson	Finland	20:41
7	Nathalie Gray	United Kingdom	20:43
8	Viktoriya Pohorielska	Ukraine	20:46
9	Yekatyerina Gorbunova	Russia	20:46
10	Lucie Sekanová	Czech Republic	20:47
11	Patricia Laubertie	France	20:47
12	Natalya Vlasova	Russia	20:47

Team race

Rank	Team	Points
	United Kingdom Pallant Gray Emily Pidgeon Sarah Waldron	47
	Russia Gorbunova Vlasova Lyudmila Lebedeva Alfiya Khasanova	49
	Ukraine Nosenko Pohorielska Olha Skrypak Lyudmyla Kovalenko	65
4	Spain	94
5	Germany	107
6	Portugal	117
7	France	118
8	Poland	194

• Totals: 65 entrants, 64 starters, 61 finishers, 8 teams.^[19]

Individual race

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time (m:s)
	Abdelaziz Merzougui	Spain	18:07
	Nemanja Cerovac	Serbia	18:07
	Rui Pinto	Portugal	18:09
4	Ivan Strebkov	Ukraine	18:09
5	Sondre Nordstad Moen	Norway	18:16
6	Andrey Rusakov	Russia	18:18
7	Jesper van der Wielen	Netherlands	18:19
8	Sándor Szábo	Hungary	18:23
9	Marek Kowalski	Poland	18:25
10	Ryan Saunders	United Kingdom	18:27
11	Romain Collenot-Spriet	France	18:31
12	Shane Quinn	Ireland	18:31

Team race

Rank	Team	Points
	United Kingdom Saunders Jonathan Hay John McDonnell Andrew Combs	62
	Portugal Pinto Emanuel Rolim José Costa Nuno Santos	74
	Russia Rusakov Victor Saenko Ilgizar Safiulin Nikolai Lialikov	85
4	France	88
5	Ireland	120
6	Ukraine	130
7	Spain	145
8	Belgium	155

• Totals: 104 entrants, 104 starters, 99 finishers, 17 teams.^[20]

Individual race

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time (m:s)
	Charlotte Purdue	United Kingdom	12:42
	Amela Terzić	Serbia	12:59
	Emelia Gorecka	United Kingdom	13:00
4	Gulshat Fazlitdinova	Russia	13:03
5	Corrina Harrer	Germany	13:08
6	Zenobie Vangansbeke	Belgium	13:09
7	Ciara Mageean	Ireland	13:16
8	Ioana Doaga	Romania	13:18
9	Lily Partridge	United Kingdom	13:19
10	Annabel Gummow	United Kingdom	13:19
11	Gesa Krause	Germany	13:22
12	Kate Avery	United Kingdom	13:24

Team race

Rank	Team	Points
	United Kingdom Purdue Gorecka Partridge Gummow	23
	Germany Harrer Krause Maya Rehberg Jannika John	53
	Romania Doaga Mirela Lavric Anca Maria Bunea Dana Elena Login	64
4	Turkey	99
5	Belgium	103
6	Italy	128
7	Spain	149
8	Portugal	165

• Totals: 76 entrants, 75 starters, 74 finishers, 11 teams.^[21]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Great Britain (GBR)	4	1	2	7
2	Portugal (POR)	2	2	3	7
3	France (FRA)	2	2	0	4
4	Spain (ESP)	1	2	3	6
5	Turkey (TUR)	1	1	0	2
6	Ukraine (UKR)	1	0	1	2
7	Ireland (IRL)	1	0	0	1
8	Serbia (SRB)	0	2	0	2
9	Russia (RUS)	0	1	2	3
10	Germany (GER)	0	1	0	1
11	Romania (ROU)	0	0	1	1
Totals (11 entries)		12	12	12	36

• Note: Totals include both individual and team medals, with medals in the team competition counting as one medal.

• Official website
• Competition site on European Athletics

37°05′32″N 8°09′43″W / 37.09222°N 8.16194°W / 37.09222; -8.16194