Posted: December 12, 2004

Athletics: Fifth Win For Lebid, Surprise Victory For Yelling At European Cross Country Championships

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

By Bob Ramsak:

SEEBAD HERINGSDORF, GER - Sergiy Lebid captured an unprecedented fifth title while Hayley Yelling sprinted to her first at the 11th SPAR European Cross Country Championships.

Taking command of the race with 3000 meters remaining, the 29-year-old Ukrainian cruised to a commanding 27:31 win over the difficult 9640-meter course, 23 seconds ahead of runner-up Juan Carlos de la Ossa of Spain.

"The last 500 meters were pretty emotional," said Lebid, whose fourth consecutive win and fifth overall broke his tie for most victories at with Portuguese great Paolo Guerra. "I felt really strong in the last 500 meters, and even stronger in the last 200 metres. I felt I could have run like that for hours."

Third place finisher Driss Maazouzi led France to a successful title defense in the team race, with their 26 point tally easily beating a surprisingly strong challenge by Italy who scored 44. Great Britain, led by veteran Karl Keska's seventh place showing, was third with 59 points.

In an upset that surprised even the winner, Yelling became only the second Briton to ever claim the European title after her thrilling come-from-behind homestretch sprint past Poland's Justyna Bak. Yelling covered the challenging 5640-meter course in 18:06, one second ahead of Bak.

"I really thought she was going to out sprint me," Yelling said with an ear-to-ear grin, "because I don't have a sprint!"

Yet even with the third place performance by Jo Pavey, Great Britain couldn't match the depth Portugal brought to Seebad Heringsdorf. With three finishers in the top-ten, the Portuguese edged the defending champions 38 to 43 to capture their fourth team title. Sabrina Mockenhaupt's fifth place showing led the hosts to a 97-point tally to capture the bronze, only the second time the host nation raced to a podium finish.

19-year-old Binnaz Uslu of Turkey scored a convincing nine-second win over Romanian Ancuta Bobocel to win the junior race. Romania won its first junior team title with 51 points, well ahead of defending champions Britain, who edged Russia for the silver, 65 to 69.

Look for a full report and complete results in tomorrow's Race Results Weekly.