Senior Men’s race report Roeselare, Belgium Cross Cup 27th October 2024

The small Belgium town of Roeselare 1 hour north of Lille was the setting for the latest round of the Belgium Cross Cup the first trip for the England Cross Country team this winter and the first visit to Roeselare.

An incredibly Sunny day with highs of 17C certainly made it the warmest cross country in Belgium I could remember. A very typical Belgium course awaited the senior men although reduced to 7.05k to match the shorter distance of this years’ European Cross Country scheduled for Antalya, Turkey on 8th December. This was an entertaining tight course with only a 70 metres starting straight, immediately into a bend followed soon after by a further bend and a double hump style hill many twists and turns with 2 small jumps in quick succession on the far side of the course. Rhythm running was certainly not the answer on this course. A race time of 14.10pm and the men were off and the tight start ensured the usual mad dash and jockeying for the front places the England men did not fair very well at this section none appeared in the top 15 as they are clearly used to longer and wider starts without the frenetic energy of the Belgian and Dutch runners.
As the race did unfold in the first mile it was clear that the England athletes were starting to adapt to the twists and turns of the course Kingston had moved up to 5th with Millar in close pursuit around 12th – Dempsey a little way back in the high teens and Gray probably not fully recovered from a bout of Covid back in the 20s.

Kingston continued to look good and working his way through to 3 rd after 13 mins of running and Millar had also moved up to 11 th looking like he had more places in him Dempsey was hanging in and passing a few whereas Gray’s race looked like it was into damage limitation back in the high 20’s.
Excitement grew on the penultimate lap with Kingston hitting the front in his distinctive cap and pushing the pace for what looked like his chance to win but the pursuing athletes, now down to just 2, were not giving way and looked more accomplished on the twists and turns as is normal for these races whereas Kinston was experiencing a Belgian course for the first time. As they approached the finish and turned into sight Kingston was hanging on to 3 rd by the skin of his teeth and ran extremely determined to hold on at the finish out dipping his rival for 3 rd Millar following up in 10 th and Dempsey having moved up to 12th with Gray not having a good day at the office in 26th.