Charles Hicks and Zak Mahamed finish one-two and lead GB to mens team gold as host nation hope Nadia Battocletti seals womens U23 title from Megan Keith

Less than 24 hours after England lost to France in the World Cup in Qatar, British cross-country runners in Turin got some measure of revenge when they pipped France to the team title in the under-23 mens race by just three points.

This was courtesy of Charles Hicks and Zak Mahamed finishing a brilliant one-two as Matt Stonier closed in the team in eighth as Rory Leonard and Joe Wigfield finished 11^th and 13^th.

Most of the athletes had watched the World Cup game in their team hotel the night before but unlike the footballers they took their chances in style on the tough, undulating course on the outskirts of Turin by breaking away emphatically from their rivals as Valentin Bresc of France took bronze.

Hicks triumphed 12 months earlier on a flatter course in Dublin and in the run-up to these championships he had won the NCAA title in Oklahoma. Mahamed, meanwhile, was a revelation as he produced an inspired run to break away with Hicks before eventually succumbing to his team-mates superior firepower in the finishing stages.

This is amazing, Hicks told AW. Its the affirmation of so much work. Having both the NCAA and this race come together so well is great. To get the team win as well is something else.

Sporting a Jack Grealish-style Alice band in his hair, Hicks adapted to the challenging rollercoaster terrain to carve out an eight-second victory over Mahamed in 23:40 as Bresc finished a further 10 seconds back.

Last year we didnt get it done as well as we might have wanted and that really lit a fire under us, said Hicks. And I think you really saw that today.

A delighted Mahamed said: I knew I was in good shape and when I was with Charles I felt good and was keen to push the pace and run as hard as I can.

There were mixed fortunes for Ireland, meanwhile, as Darragh McElhinney, the silver medallist behind Hicks in Dublin last year, was only 26th but the team still won bronze.

Battocletti battles back from illness to win

Nadia Battocletti produced one of the stories of the championships when she successfully defended her under-23 womens title on home soil in Italy after a build-up beset by illness.

In second, Megan Keith ran brilliantly to take silver for Britain just 12 months after winning under-20 gold in Dublin. If Id somehow found the strength to pass Nadia, she said, I would definitely have been the villain!

A tearful Battocletti was full of emotion after the race and she was still doing media interviews when the senior womens race was over. The 22-year-old had mononucleosis in the summer and struggled with further illness. I was still taking antibiotics until 10 days before this race, she said.

Battocletti pulled away in the race with Keith and, despite doubts over her fitness, the Italian drew away from the Briton on the final uphill section and then consolidated her lead on the downhill run-in to the finish to win by 13 seconds in 19:55.

Amazingly for Battocletti, who lives in northern Italy, it was her fourth successive Euro Cross win after two under-20 titles and the under-23 victories in 2021 and now 2022.

At the finish Battocletti was hugged by her father and coach Giuliano, who led Italy to the senior mens team gold with a seventh-place finish when the championships were first held in Italy in Ferrara in 1998.

Nadia was seventh in the Olympics (5000m in Tokyo), said Edinburgh student Keith, so today for me the silver was like a gold medal. She is at another level so to come second was my A-goal.

In third, Alex Millard won a brilliant bronze for Britain and, along with Grace Carson in fifth, this ensured the team gold went to the GB & Northern Ireland squad ahead of Italy and France.

Im buzzing, I was not expecting that! said Millard. I didnt think I liked hills but I seem to do well on them. It was really fun today. I loved it.

Eloise Walker in 11^th, Alice Goodall in 13^th and Yasmin Marghini in 18th also ran strongly in a superb British performance.

Reigning European under-23 cross-country champion is set to tackle a rollercoaster course that passes through a museum on the outskirts on Turin

La Mandria Park sits in the shadow of the Alps and on the north-west outskirts of Turin. On Sunday the venue will play host to the European Cross Country Championships and the organisers have devised a course that is both challenging and imaginative.

Recent rain means the turf in this Piemonte region of Italy will be fairly heavy going. Athletes will also have to navigate sharp climbs and descents on a twisty, spectator-friendly course. The most interesting section, though, is a short passage of less than 100 metres which goes through an historic building. It is reminiscent of Italys famous Cinque Mulini or five mills race and, as the competitors glide over the artificial grass, they will run past Italian paintings, artefacts such as replica horse and carriages and even a snooker table.

It is a far cry from the course that staged the 1997 World Cross Country Championships in Turin. On that occasion the event was held in the Parco del Valentino on the other side of the city and after around two months of no rain the IAAF paid an estimated $500,000 to lay down new grass with staff also working around the clock to fill in dangerous potholes on the parched terrain.

This weekends European Championships is the fourth time the event has been held in Spain following Ferrara in 1998, San Giorgio su Legnano in 2006 and Chia in 2016. The course at La Mandria Park is set up for a tremendous day of racing with all six reigning champions from Dublin 12 months ago back to defend their crowns.

One of these is Charles Hicks, who stormed to victory in the mens under-23 race last year. The US-based Briton, who is now 21, says he considered racing the senior mens event in Turin but decided to defend his age-group title and he arrives in Italy in tremendous form after winning the prestigious NCAA cross-country title in Oklahoma three weeks ago.

The focus has been to get as much rest and recovery as possible in the past three weeks, he says. Ive tried to relax and concentrate on the little things and keep my season rolling.

Hicks was speaking shortly after jogging around the course in La Mandria Park and had plenty of mud on his shoes to prove it. Its definitely going to be a tactical endeavour, he says on the route. Some courses run themselves. Some need some thinking through. So Ill be strategizing tonight based on the information I got today over whats going to be the best plan. But other athletes will have their own plans so Ill definitely have to adapt.

After only flying into Italy two days earlier, Hicks is a little jet-lagged but says he feels fine. He believes it will be a different test to Dublin last year, though. I think it will be different. I came into last year a little bit banged up. But Im feeling very strong this year.

Hicks pre-race strategising is likely to take place before or during the England vs France World Cup knock-out game. He was born in London and lived there until he was 12 years old before moving to Florida. So despite his strong American accent he definitely considers himself British.

Did it ever cross his mind to compete for the US instead of Britain? For me its so hard to overwrite where the story began and where I grew up with an Olympic dream in Britain, he says. My first run was in Britain. My first race was in Britain. Its hard to erase your national identity after being in a country for 12 years. So for me it was never a very difficult decision.

He studies symbolic systems with an emphasis on cognitive sciences at Stanford University. This involves focusing on artificial intelligence, which is super interesting, he says.

When does he leave Stanford? Im undecided, he says, adding that hes in a fairly flexible position. I have great team-mates and coach but I will make a decision at some stage.

During the pre-event press conference on Saturday he was joined by Italian hopes Yeman Crippa and Nadia Battocletti plus Germanys Konstance Klosterhalfen. At one stage Hicks was asked if he had advice for Crippa ahead of the Italian facing reigning champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the senior mens race, but the Briton diplomatically said he wasnt best-placed to dish out advice on how to beat the world 5000m champion.

Crippa knows it is a tough ask to beat Ingebrigtsen, too, but he goes into his race with nothing to lose, lots of partisan home support and 35 days of altitude training in Kenya under his belt.

READ MORE: Euro Cross who, what and when guide

Not quite as confident is Battocletti. The two-time under-20 winner and defending under-23 champion says: The last few months for me have been tough as I got mononucleosis and then I got many infections and finished my last cycle of antibiotics about 10 days ago. But I want to be here and I never give up.

After sampling the course on Saturday, its likely all the athletes went back to their team hotels with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Certainly there are shades of the World Cross course in Denmark in 2019 where features such as an uphill section on the roof of a museum were described as a potential leveller.

Brit blasts past Irishman in closing strides in Turin as Maria Forero of Spain overhauls front-running Innes Fitzgerald in the under-20 womens race

The opening race of the 2022 European Cross Country Championships in La Mandria Park on the outskirts of Turin on Sunday (Dec 11) could hardly have featured a more exciting finish.

After duelling it out for much of the latter stages of the under-20 mens race, Nick Griggs of Ireland had pulled away from Will Barnicoat of Britain and looked set for gold.

But with just a few metres to go he stumbled and lost his momentum. Pouncing on the opportunity, Barnicoat blasted past to win the title and, in doing so, led Britain to team victory over Ireland too.

Amid the drama, the defending champion Axel Vang Christensen of Denmark, who coincidentally studies at the University of Birmingham with Barnicoat, struggled mid-race and dropped out.

Last years silver medallist Abdullahi Dahir Rabi from Norway also suffered and dropped out on the viciously undulating course. In addition, Joel Ibler Lillesø, the Danish athlete who beat Jakob Ingebrigtsens European indoor under-20 3000m record recently, faded to 13th.

I saw him (Griggs) tiring so I thought nows my chance to take the title and I gave it everything I had, an emotional Barnicoat told AW. I wanted it so badly. Ive been thinking about it so much in the back of my head. I ran through every scenario possible.

To make ends meet as a student athlete, Barnicoat has been working part-time at Gourmet Burger Kitchen. Im not a professional. Im a glorified pot washer but days like make it all worthwhile.

Griggs threw up after the race after having given it his all and the Irishman was magnanimous in defeat, saying: Im not sure if my stumble at the end was the ground or tiredness. But no excuses. Will is an unbelievable athlete and a lovely guy. I lost momentum at the end and am disappointed but I gave it everything.

Barnicoat ran 17:40 ahead of Griggs 17:41 with Griggs Irish team-mate Dean Casey taking bronze with 17:46 as Barnicoats GB team-mates Sam Mills, Luke Birdseye and Ed Bird were fourth, fifth and ninth.

Forero takes junior womens title

Maria Forero of Spain stormed to victory in the under-20 womens race in 13:04 ahead of Ingeborg Østgard of Norway and Ilona Mononen of Finland.

British hope Innes Fitzgerald finished outside the medals in fourth but drew plaudits once again for her fierce front-running style of racing not to mention admirable travel tactics that involved getting a train from Exeter to Turin instead of flying due to environmental reasons.

Fitzgerald does not turn 17 until April and has been training seriously for less than a year under the guidance of Gavin Pavey, who, like many coaches, was at La Mandria Park to cheer on his athlete.

So far this winter she has blown away her domestic opposition but this was a step up in quality and Forero, for example, celebrates her 20^th birthday in March and finished fifth in the world under-20 5000m final in Colombia during the summer.

After her train trip of around 20 hours to the city, Fitzgerald showed little sign of fatigue and wasted no time asserting herself in the race as she strode to the front. Ultimately she faltered on the hills a little bit, though.

On the uphill BOOM! said Forero, in broken English, as she described the moment she broke away from Fitzgerald on the final lap.

Im a bit disappointed that I got it tactically wrong and missed out on a medal position, but it was a good experience, said Fitzgerald. It was quick out there but I took it out too fast, I think. The hill at the end got me. I felt like my legs werent moving.

On a day that saw many athletes wearing track super spikes, Fitzgerald chose to wear traditional cross-country spikes and felt it was the wrong decision.

When it came to her decision to get the train from England to Italy, she said: Environmentally its so damaging that I cant really justify it. It was a long old haul to get out here about 20 hours.

Fitzgerald is so young she can do the next three under-20 races at these championships and at next years event in Brussels she will be looking to make the podium, not to mention a slightly shorter train journey across the English Channel.

Behind Fitzgerald the British under-20 womens team did not display their usual dominance with Rebecca Flaherty the second Brit home in 18th, just a few weeks after winning world mountain running silver in Thailand.

Spain took team gold ahead of Turkey and Germany with Britain fourth.

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