Innes Fitzgerald (Exeter Harriers) was the Novuna GB&NI team's star performer, winning her third consecutive individual title at the 31st SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa, Portugal, on Sunday 14th December 2025.

Fitzgerald led the under-20 women's team (pictured) to gold with a superb front-running display on the hard-baked surface of the compact and twisty course in Portugal's sunny Algarve area. The team success was clinched by 16-year-old Beth Lewis (City of York AC, 12th) and Isabel Holt (Blackburn Harriers, 20th).

Great Britain and Northern Ireland won six medals in the seven-race programme to finish third on the medals table behind Spain and hosts Belgium. The event was broadcast on the BBC Red Button and iPlayer for over four hours, with commentary by Steve Cram and Paula Radcliffe, providing the perfect entertainment for armchair enthusiasts.

The under-20 men won team silver, finishing one point ahead of Spain but well behind Belgium. William Rabjohns (Poole AC, 12th) led the GB&NI team, supported by Alex Lennon (Sutton & District AC, 15th) and Michael Clark (City of Norwich AC, 18th), who lost a spike early in the race.

The team medals continued to roll in for GB&NI as the mixed relay team of Ava Lloyd (Wigan & District AC), Jack Higgins (Tonbridge AC), Holly Dixon (Cambridge Harriers) and Callum Elson (Cambridge & Coleridge AC) finished a close third for bronze, five seconds behind Italy and one second behind Portugal.

The GB&NI women's under-23 team was fifth, with Emily Parker (Poole AC, 13th) the leading runner. The men's under-23s went one better for fourth, led by Matt Ramsden (Blackburn Harriers, 6th) – a superb GB debut.

The final races were for the senior men and women. The championships have been expanded somewhat since only senior athletes ran in the inaugural event in Alnwick, Northumberland, on 10th December 1994, when the host nation won no medals!

The women went first, and there was a brilliant silver for Megan Keith (Inverness AC), who recovered from being tripped and falling in the opening skirmish after just 100m. The flying Keith was backed up by fellow Scot, Phoebe Anderson (Herne Hill Harriers, 16th), who was making her senior debut, and late selection Verity Ockenden (Swansea Harriers, 21st) as GB claimed another team silver.

The senior men closed the programme in fourth place as Scott Beattie (Morpeth Harriers) was agonisingly close to an individual bronze, finishing fourth on photo evidence in the same time as Swiss athlete, Dominic Lobalu. Beattie's Morpeth clubmate Rory Leonard (17th) was the next best in the GB team.

Full results are at European Athletics here.

Photo of the winning under-20 women's team by British Athletics on Facebook