This is the first time England has travelled to Venta de Banos in Spain for the annual International Cross Country. The senior men’s team (Adam Hickey, Patrick Martin, Luke Cragg and Jon Beattie) appeared strong with very little between the 4 athletes who had finished 8th, 11th, 15th and 17th respectively in the European Trial 3 weeks earlier.
The course was 5 laps (10.4k) and was an interesting mix of old cinder track for the start, with a wooden ramp to jump and take you onto the thin green matting that helped the runners along and across the road for about 300m linking it into the field. The field was a combination of good surface running and good old traditional ploughed mud which got heavy due to the rain both the night before and during the day of racing.
The England team got away well as unit and all were in a large group for lap 1. On lap 2 Hickey moved into in 3rd and Martin in 5th and the other two also well up in the top 12. As lap 2 progressed this tended to stay as the order and it was looking obvious after 2 laps (just over 4k) that the England lads were in with a chance of a top 3 finish as all were still hovering between 3rd and 10th with Hickey still to the fore in 3rd closely followed by Martin 4th and Cragg 7th with Beattie 10th. No real break happened on lap 2 and the places pretty much stayed the same with Hickey and Martin doing battle for 3rd place. Lap 3 showed that Chepkok of Kenya meant business and he started to move away and by now a few gaps appeared with Hickey and Martin now battling for 4th place but clear of the chasing runners behind them. Further back Cragg was still running strong in 7th with Beattie now looking settled not too far behind him in 10th.
During lap 4 on the plough Martin started to make his challenge and was now just ahead of Hickey in 4th place with a 3 metres gap both were looking strong and it was going to be a battle all the way to the line. Further back Cragg was still in 7th but gritting his teeth and determined to ensure he was not losing any more ground or places to the finish. Beattie was now also looking strong only one place behind and looking as though he was going give it one final effort to beat Cragg who was not only a team mate on this trip but a working colleague at Loughborough University.
The final lap started and Martin was now solid in 4th with Hickey 5 metres behind but now in 6th place separated by Santacruz of Spain. Cragg and Beattie looked solid in 7th and 10th respectively. A great effort on the last lap allowed Martin to dig deep and hold off Hickey but unfortunately he lost 4th place to Santacruz on the final 300m on the cinder track. Hickey held onto 6th some 6 seconds behind Martin with Cragg a further 15 seconds behind Hickey in 7th and Beattie picking up 11th after getting overtaken very late on the track.
A great run by the 4 lads and it proved quite a battle between Martin and Hickey and Cragg and Beattie. The general consensus was that the guys all felt their runs were ‘good’ so no major disappointments. The guys generally coped really well with the differing terrain and didn’t really say a negative word about it which to me showed a very positive approach and ownership of their own performance.
Moving forward Martin and Hickey move on to the Edinburgh International Cross Country in 3 weeks’ time, Cragg travels to the US for 3 weeks and Beattie is off to Kenya training throughout January.
Results were:
1 Vincent Chepkok Kenya 35m20
2 Kenneth Kipkemoi Kenya 35m33
3 Antonio Pentinel Spain 35m48
4 Daniel Spain 36m02
5 Patrick Martin 36m 06
6 Adam Hickey 36m 12
7 Luke Cragg 36m 27
8 Philip Kiptoo Kenya 36m 30
9 Chema Martinez Spain 36m35
10 Francisco Espana Spain 36m35
11 John Beattie 36m 36
