To
quote the course announcer at Dublin's Santry Demense course on Sunday, "This
can only be described as a masterful piece of running."
They
were appropriate words uttered as Great Britain's Hayley Yelling was close to
the line and just a few seconds away from regaining the SPAR European Cross
Country Championships title she won in 2004.
Even
more remarkable, the 35-year-old school teacher has only been training
seriously again since the start of November.
If
you look back to the news on www.european-athletics.org, almost exactly 12
months ago to the day, it was announced that Yelling had decided to hang up her
spikes in the wake of a disappointing 19th place last year in Brussels.
However,
the running bug started to bite again at the start of the winter and clearly her
appetite has returned in force.
To
many people's amazement, Yelling pushed hard from the gun and started to move
away from the field just a kilometre into the 8018m race.
After
the first lap of 1650m, she had four seconds advantage over a 14-strong chasing
pack that was headed by the highly favoured Portuguese pair of Inês Monteiro
and Ana Dulce Félix, as well as the local poster girl of the event, Mary
Cullen.
The
gap stayed the same through the next lap, although the group behind her was
reduced to five - Monteiro, Félix and fellow Portuguese runner Jessica Augusto
along with Spain's Rosa María Morató and the Netherlands' Adrienne Herzog, as
Cullen started to slip back - with Yelling looking remarkably relaxed despite
her slightly awkward running action of her arms swinging across her front.
Yelling
then made another surge from the halfway point and had six seconds to spare
over Augusto and Morató, second and fifth last year, who had slowly shaken
themselves free of their companions at the next check point at 4823m.
In
the sixth kilometre, with Yelling still running in very confident fashion apart
from rather delicately picking her way around the occasional but growing
patches of mud on the course, Morató started to edge away from Augusto in a bid
to add to her bronze medal from 2007.
Behind
Morató, Herzog had moved onto the shoulder of Augusto, who was clearly flagging
a little, in a battle for third place.
On
the final lap, Yelling's exhilaration of being on top of the podium was clear
to see. There was a broad smile on her face and no sign of any panic, before
she crossed the line in 27:49.
"It
was fantastic. I think retirement is the way forward but I guess I'm not
retired any more. It wasn't a deliberate tactic to go to the front, it was just
that I wanted to run hard and see how far I could go," said a thrilled Yelling.
Yelling
was running in the Championships for the 12th time and almost certainly will
equal the women's record of 13 appearances - held by Belgium's Anja Smolders -
next year.
Morató
raised her arms in delight at getting the silver medal, finished seven seconds
behind Yelling while Herzog - the 2007 SPAR European Cross Country
Championships U 23 silver medallist - added the bronze to her collection when
she came home eight seconds further back.
Augusto, Monteiro and Félix finished in the
next three places to deliver Portugal their expected team gold medals with 25
points, retaining the title they won last year.
It
was the perfect promotional boost for next year's SPAR European Cross Country
Championships, which will be held on the Algarve resort of Albufeira in
Portugal.
Great
Britain took the silver medals with 51 points while Spain came home third in 58
points.
To
the disappointment of the local crowd, who were eagerly anticipating a medal
from Cullen, the Sligo runner had a difficult time over the second half of the
race and drifted back to finish 12th.
1 1074 YELLING, Hayley GBR 27:49
2 1030 MORATÓ, Rosa María ESP 27:56
3 1157 HERZOG, Adriënne NED 28:04
4 1166 AUGUSTO, Jessica POR 28:11
5 1169 MONTEIRO, Inês POR 28:14
6 1168 FÉLIX, Dulce POR 28:19
7 1201 JEVTIC, Olivera SRB 28:21
8 1224 HOLOVCHENKO, Tetyana UKR 28:25
9 1070 MURRAY, Freya GBR 28:25
10 1170 MOREIRA, Sara POR 28:32
11 1110 BRITTON, Fionnuala IRL 28:39
12 1113 CULLEN, Mary IRL 28:45
13 1139 ROMAGNOLO, Elena ITA 28:52
14 1171 ROSA, Anália POR 28:54
15 1008 SCHENKEL, Sandra BEL 28:55
16 1028 FUENTES-PILA, Iris María ESP 28:57
17 1024 AGUILAR, Alessandra ESP 28:59
18 1211 ANDERSSON, Isabellah SWE 29:00
19 1135 DAL RI, Federica ITA 29:01
20 1073 WOOTTON, Katrina GBR 29:02
21 1071 SAMUELS, Sonia GBR 29:03
22 1068 KENNEY, Laura GBR 29:09
23 1027 FERNÁNDEZ, Nuria ESP 29:13
24 1047 BOURGAILH-HADDIOUI, Saadia FRA 29:13
25 1112 BYRNE, Linda IRL 29:17
26 1167 DIAS, Ana POR 29:22
27 1137 MARAOUI, Fatna ITA 29:24
28 1026 BEJARANO, Sonia ESP 29:24
29 1067 DEADMAN, Lauren GBR 29:28
30 1052 YVELAIN, Fatima FRA 29:32
31 1213 EWERLÖF-KREPP, Malin SWE 29:36
32 1009 VAN LINDEN, Veerle BEL 29:37
33 1094 RESTLE, Simret GER 29:40
34 1115 HUTCHINSON, Ava IRL 29:42
35 1116 O'MAHONEY, Orla IRL 29:58
36 1017 PADABED, Iryna BLR 30:00
37 1046 BARDELLE, Christine FRA 30:01
38 1025 BARRACHINA, Gemma ESP 30:02
39 1051 PICOCHE, Laurane FRA 30:12
40 1092 HEUCK, Ingalena GER 30:15
41 1048 GUET, Hélène FRA 30:23
42 1093 JANSSEN, Saskia GER 30:29
43 1212 BLOMMÉ, Lisa SWE 30:40
44 1138 QUAGLIA, Emma ITA 30:48
45 1050 PELLEN, Maryline FRA 30:52
46 1095 SCHÜTZ, Birte GER 31:06
47 1136 FACCIANI, Martina ITA 31:11
48 1111 BYRNE, Deirdre IRL 31:13
49 1214 JOHANSSON, Ulrika SWE 31:18
50 1154 CAMILLERI, Giselle MLT 34:06
1022 MØLLER, Maria Sig DEN DNS
1215 LILJESTEDT, Malin SWE DNS
1007 DE SCHRYDER, Selien BEL DNF
Team Result
Rank BIB Athlete Nation Result
1 Portugal POR 25
1166 AUGUSTO, Jessica 4
1169 MONTEIRO, Inês 5
1168 FÉLIX, Dulce 6
1170 MOREIRA, Sara 10
1171 ROSA, Anália (14)
1167 DIAS, Ana (26)
2 Great Britain & NI GBR 51
1074 YELLING, Hayley 1
1070 MURRAY, Freya 9
1073 WOOTTON, Katrina 20
1071 SAMUELS, Sonia 21
1068 KENNEY, Laura (22)
1067 DEADMAN, Lauren (29)
3 Spain ESP 58
1030 MORATÓ, Rosa María 2
1028 FUENTES-PILA, Iris María 16
1024 AGUILAR, Alessandra 17
1027 FERNÁNDEZ, Nuria 23
1026 BEJARANO, Sonia (28)
1025 BARRACHINA, Gemma (38)
4 Ireland IRL 82
1110 BRITTON, Fionnuala 11
1113 CULLEN, Mary 12
1112 BYRNE, Linda 25
1115 HUTCHINSON, Ava 34
1116 O'MAHONEY, Orla (35)
1111 BYRNE, Deirdre (48)
5 Italy ITA 103
1139 ROMAGNOLO, Elena 13
1135 DAL RI, Federica 19
1137 MARAOUI, Fatna 27
1138 QUAGLIA, Emma 44
1136 FACCIANI, Martina (47)
6 France FRA 130
1047 BOURGAILH-HADDIOUI, Saadia 24
1052 YVELAIN, Fatima 30
1046 BARDELLE, Christine 37
1051 PICOCHE, Laurane 39
1048 GUET, Hélène (41)
1050 PELLEN, Maryline (45)
7 Sweden SWE 141
1211 ANDERSSON, Isabellah 18
1213 EWERLÖF-KREPP, Malin 31
1212 BLOMMÉ, Lisa 43
1214 JOHANSSON, Ulrika 49
8 Germany GER 161
1094 RESTLE, Simret 33
1092 HEUCK, Ingalena 40
1093 JANSSEN, Saskia 42
1095 SCHÜTZ, Birte
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