Lebid claims sixth title with stunning last lap surge

SERGIY LEBID stole the show with a devastating last lap surge to claim his fifth successive title - and his sixth in all - at the SPAR European cross-country championships in Tilburg, overcoming the challenge of Spain’s Alberto Garcia, the European 5,000m champion who only returned from a two-year ban for a positive drugs test last March.

The race, originally earmarked for Cork Racecourse as part of the European City of Culture celebrations until failure to win Government funding scuppered the plan, marked the changing of the guard for Ireland’s cross-country runners with the likes of Seamus Power, Peter Matthews, Sonia O’Sullivan, Anne Keenan Buckley and Catherina McKiernan no longer around.

European indoor 3,000m champion Alistair Cragg was forced to withdraw on the eve of the event with a foot infection, and illness ruled out the European junior 1,500m champion Colin Costello who had returned from Arkansas.