EDINBURGH, Dec 14 (AFP) - British distance runningphenomenon Paula Radcliffe won the European crosscountry title here on Sunday three days ahead of her30th birthday.
Radcliffe timed 22min 04sec over the 6.6-kilometrecourse to take her second European title. She beat homeTurkey’s Elvan Abeylegesse by 9sec while Aniko Kalovicsof Hungary was third, 22sec in arrears.
Radcliffe’s performance helped Great Britain to takethe team title while Ireland took silver with Portugalin bronze position.
I planned to start out slowly and to make mychallenge in the final lap,'' said the marathon worldrecord holder, who missed most of this year with injury. Ukraine's Sergei Lebid retained his Europeancross-country title for the fourth of his career. The 28-year-old timed 30min 46sec to see off thechallenge of Juan de la Ossa by 22sec while EduardoHenriques took bronze another 7sec in arrears. I wanted to show my real value,’’ said Lebid.
``I knew that I was in great form and I had arelatively easy race.’’
France won the team title ahead of Spain and Portugal.
Earlier Russian twins Yevgeny and Anatoly Rybakov hadfilled first and second in the junior race repeatingtheir feat of last year.
The 18-year-olds set the pace for virtually the wholerace crossing the line practically together but Yevgenygot the nod by a centimetre or two.
Russia won the team event as well after their secondset of twins, Alexei and Sergei Reunkov, finished thirdand 43rd - Romania took second and Spain third.