Andy Vernon Wins Silver at the European Cross-Country Championships - Sunday 11 December 2005
By Mark Le Gassick
A brilliant tactical performance by Andy Vernon at the European Cross-Country Championships at Tilburg, Holland, last weekend, ended with a dramatic finale that resulted in the young Stubbington-based runner winning the silver medal for Great Britain.
The 6.5km junior mens' race consisted of four tricky laps around a muddy, twisty and, in places, narrow course.
In the early stages, Andy positioned himself perfectly running just off the shoulder of defending champion, Hungary 's Barnabás Bené.
As the race unfolded and the pace intensified, the young Brit became disconnected from the lead group and dropped back to fourth place.
However, the UK cross-country champion didn't panic and looked extremely comfortable as he maintained the gap to the first three. At the start of the final lap, Andy rejoined the leading group, moving up into third place and back into medal contention.
Entering the final straight, Bené confirmed his pedigree as the reigning European Junior 5000m Champion by unleashing a devastating kick for the line, adding another gold to the one that he won 12 months ago in Herringsdorf , Germany .
Andy demonstrated that he too has a sprint finish to be reckoned with, matching Dusan Markesevic stride for stride all the way down the final straight and dipping for the line to snatch the silver just ahead of the young Serbian.
"I had no answer to Bene's kick but I am thrilled to get the silver medal," said Andy after the race. "It was a good race for me. From the gun, I got in the right position, got to the front because there were narrow bits on the course. Everything just went from there."
As well as winning the individual silver medal, Andy's excellent run ensured that the junior men took silver in the team event.
Junior Men
1 Barnabás Bené ( Hungary ) 18.41
2 Andy Vernon ( Great Britain ) 18.42
3 Dusan Markesevic ( Serbia ) 18.42
Other Results
In the senior mens' race, run over 10km, Ukrainian, Sergiy Lebid, treated the 10,000 strong crowd to a fine display of endurance running on his way to winning his sixth European cross-country title, beating nearest rival Alberto Garcia of Spain by 12 seconds in 27 minutes 9 seconds.
Mo Farah was the first Brit home in 21st place with a time of 27 minutes 57 seconds.
Kenyan-born Lornah Kiplagat, now representing Holland , gave the home crowd something to celebrate by becoming the first Dutch woman to win a European cross-country championship title in a time of 19 minutes 55 seconds.
Unfortunately, Hayley Yelling was unable to defend her title in the 6.5k senior women's race, but combined well with sister-in-law Liz, placing sixth (20.16) and eighth (20.17) respectively to secure the silver medal for Great Britain.
In the junior womens' race run over 4.78k, Emily Pidgeon ran superbly to win the individual silver medal in a time of 15 minutes 25 seconds, just two seconds adrift of the European junior steeplechase record holder Ancuta Bobocel of Romania.
Great Britain's junior womens' team won the gold medal thanks to Pidgeon's second place, plus strong performances by Morag MacLarty who finished in sixth (15.42) and Stephanie Twell who was seventh (15.45).