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By Owen Morgan
Six Welsh athletes will go head to head with some of the world biggest names at the European Cross Country Championships on Sunday.
Wrexham AC’s Matt Willis and Swansea Harrier Kris Jones will be up against Norway’s Ingebrigtsen twins Filip and Jakob, who will both be defending their European titles in Portugal.
Jones will face Filip Ingebrigtsen in the senior men’s race, while Willis goes in the under-20 race alongside teenage sensation Jakob, who finished fourth in the World Championship 1500 final in Doha earlier this year.
Willis is himself in excellent form having won the first three races in this year’s British Athletics Cross Challenge Series and was the first Britain and second European home at March’s IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Denmark.
Meanwhile, Jones will be in hoping to show similar form to last year’s Euro Cross when he helped Great Britain to a team bronze medal after being called up at short notice.
Cardiff club mates Charlotte Arter and Jenny Nesbitt both line up in the senior women’s race where they will be up against African-born Turkish athlete Yasmin Can, who will be going for her fourth consecutive title.
Arter has been in outstanding form across all disciplines during 2019, most recently finishing second at the British team trials in Liverpool, having won the first round of the British Athletics Cross Challenge in Cardiff.
The 28-year-old will be looking to at least emulate the senior women’s team silver medal she helped win at last year’s event in Holland.
Nesbitt, the reigning Welsh Cross Country Champion, will be making her first senior Euro Cross appearance for Great Britain in a 40-strong squad which will be led by Adam Hickey.
The GB women’s under-23 team features Leeds City’s Bronwen Owen, who won in Liverpool and Swansea Harrier Cari Hughes, who came home from Holland with an under-20 team gold medal.
They will face, amongst others, Anna Emilie Moller, who has enjoyed a fine season on the track winning European Under-23 gold in both the 3,000m and steeplechase. The Dane was a winner at last year’s Cardiff Cross Challenge.
You can watch all the action from Lisbon on Sunday between 10am and 2pm via the BBC Red Button, Connected TVs, BBC Sport website and mobile app. There will be highlights on BBC2 at 5.15pm.
