Women's preview for the 2022 European Cross Country Championships
European Cross Country Championships Turin 2022 women's senior race preview.
Karoline Grovdal from Norway will defend her European senior gold medal one year after her triumph in Dublin, the city where she won the European under 20 gold medal in 2009. Grovdal will be looking to reach another podium at this event after collecting four consecutive silver medals in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 and a bronze medal in 2019. Grovdal also won silver behind Great Britain's Stephanie Twell at the age of 16 at the European Cross Country Championships in San Giorgio su Legnano in 2006. With a total of eight individual medals, Grovdal has an unsurpassed record by a female athlete in the history of the European Championships. The Scandinavian athlete broke Ingrid Kristiansen's national record in the 5000 meters at the Bislett Games in Oslo with 14:31.07.
Grovdal also won two European bronze medals in the 10000m in Amsterdam in 2016 and in the 3000 metres steeplechase in Berlin in 2018. Last year Grovdal beat Sweden's Meraf Bahta completing the Norwegian double after Ingebrigtsen's triumph in the men's race.
Grovdal will take on Konstanze Klosterhalfen, who won Munich's European 5000m gold medal last August and the world bronze medal over the same distance in Doha 2019. Klosterhalfen made a successful debut over the half marathon distance winning in Valencia in 1:05:41. The German athlete will be seeking her first individual senior medal at these championships after winning the under 20 gold in 2015 and 2016 and the under 23 silver medal in 2017. She won two European Indoor silver medals in the 1500m in Belgrade 2017 and in the 3000m in Glasgow 2019 and holds German records in the indoor 1500m, in the mile, in the indoor and outdoor 3000m, in the indoor and outdoor 5000m and in the 10000m.
The German team also features Alina Reh, who won the European Under 23 cross-country title ahead of Klosterhalfen in Samorin 2017 and the individual senior bronze medal last year in Dublin. Reh won the German cross-country title ahead of Hanna Klein and Miriam Dattke, who have been selected for this year's edition.
Yasemin Can is seeking her fifth individual European senior gold medal after winning four consecutive titles from 2016 to 2019. Can, who will turn 26 on the day of the European Cross Country Championships, won the gold medal in the 10000m and the silver in the 5000m at the European Championships in Munich. She finished 14th in last year's European Cross Country Championships edition.
Clara Mageean leads a strong Irish team. Mageean won the 1500m European silver medal in Munich behind Laura Muir and broke Sonia O'Sullivan's Irish record in the 1500m by clocking 3:56.63 at the Brussels Wanda Diamond League meeting last September. Mageean competed in the mixed relay in last year's edition on home soil in Dublin.
Jessica Warner Judd finished fourth in last year's edition in Dublin, leading Great Britain to the team gold medal.
Sweden features last year's silver medallist Meraf Bahta, 2019 bronze medallist Samrawit Mengstaeb and Sarah Lathi, who won the silver medal in the 10000m and bronze in the 5000m at the European Under 23 Championships in Bydgoszcz 2017.
