6th Spar European Cross Country
Championships
Mark Butler for IAAF
12 December 1999 - Velenje (Slovenia) - Paulo Guerra and Anita Weyermann each bounced back from disappointing summers to excavate gold from the picturesque Slovenian mining town of Velenje. Great Britain’s men and France’s women emerged as senior team champions after close battles on the sticky 1600m lap course. Conditions were cool (4°C), still and dry, though the ground had been softened by heavy rain on Wednesday and Thursday.
The day began with the junior women’s race (2 laps). The British number one, Caroline Walsh, did much of the early pace setting, but the leader at the start of the final lap was the Swiss triathlon specialist Nicola Spirig. The leading group boiled down to four: Spirig, Iñes Monteiro (POR), Sibel Özyürt (TUR) and Anne Marie Moutsinga (ROM). Monteiro and Spirig led into the last 800m with the Ethiopian-born Turk - who took the European Junior 1500m title this summer - lurking close behind. Just as we thought Özyürt might sprint clear, so Monteiro made a decisive surge up the final hill. In no time she had accumulated a gap of 50m and therefore went one better than her silver of 1998. Spirig - in her first major athletics contest - was second followed by Moutsinga (17), who surprisingly outkicked Özyürt. Could she be Romania’s successor to Gabi Szabo ? Turkey retained the team title.
The biggest winning margin of the day came from the gangling Belgian Hans Janssen in the junior men’s race (4 laps). He covered the suicidal early pace of Ionut Bura (ROM) before gliding into a lead of some 100m by halfway. At the start of the last lap, the reigning European Junior 10,000m Champion was 25 seconds ahead of Austria’s Martin Pröll. After Janssen eased round the final lap, taking time to pat hand with spectators, Pröll succumbed to the sprint finishes of Guillaume Eraud (FRA) and Turo Inkiläinen (FIN). Fifth was 16 year-old Mohamed Farah, who led Britain to the team title.
All the principals were visible up front at the start of the senior women’s race (3 laps). The Moroccan-born Frenchwoman Rakiya Maraoui led into the second lap before Constantina Dita (ROM) took over. Following closely was Anita Weyermann (SUI), who had finished an uncharacteristic 12th and last in the World Championship 1500m. Also in attendance was Yugoslavia’s Olivera Jevtic, and she made a bid for victory in the final lap. Maraoui was dropped but Weyermann followed closely for a while before pulling decisively clear with half a lap remaining. Dita got the better of Jevtic, who won her third successive bronze medal in this enough. The Romanian’s fine run was not quite enough to give her country the team title. France, led by Maraoui (6th) prevailed by just one point. The Portuguese were favourites for the men’s race (6 laps), but which Portuguese would win ? Former Champion Paulo Guerra or Eduardo Henriques, who recently beat Guerra twice. Sure enough this pair sprung from a leading pack of eight at halfway. Portugal’s chances of team success looked good at this point. Domingos Castro was fifth with José Ramos, their final scorer, in the teens. The two principals - each sporting a pair of white gloves - ran abreast before Guerra began to pull away. On the fourth circuit, Guerra - who missed the Seville marathon with tendonitis - began to lap the back markers. But as his grip on the individual title was tightening, his team’s chances were slipping; Ramos was going backwards. Meanwhile the fortunes of Great Britain - spearheaded by Jon Brown’s third place - were improving. They had all four scorers in the first 12. That is how it stayed until the finish. Guerra was a delighted winner, adding the 1999 title to those he won in 1994 and 1995. Henriques took silver from Brown and Britain edged Portugal by six points.
One ingenious move by the organisers was to ask local schoolchildren to do special studies of the record 29 competing countries. The thousands of children were then invited to spectate, and of course they gave special support for the particular country they had studied. This guaranteed enthusiastic cheers of each and every runner.
Leading results
(For further details see http://www.rlv.si/cross99/page22.html)
Men (total distance of 9750m)
1, Paulo Guerra POR 32:45
2, Eduardo Henriques POR 32:50
3, Jon Brown GBR 33:32
Teams
1, Great Britain & NI 35
2, Portugal 41
3, France 58
Junior Men (6550m)
1, Hans Janssens BEL 23:00
2, Guillaume Eraud FRA 23:12
3, Turo Inkiläinen FIN 23:12
Teams
1, Great Britain & NI 26
2, France 38
3, Ireland 43
Women (4950m)
1, Anita Weyermann SUI 18:53
2, Constantina Dita ROM 19:01
3, Olivera Jevtic YUG 19:03
Teams
1, France 34
2, Romania 35
3, Portugal 39
Junior Women (3350m)
1, Iñes Monteiro POR 12:48
2, Nicola Spirig SUI 12:55
3, Anne Marie Moutsinga ROM 13:02
Teams
1, Turkey 27
2, Portugal 32
3, Belgium 34
