Nancy Scott's senior women's silver and Ewan Busfield's junior men's bronze helped Great Britain & Northern Ireland finish the championships with further podium success, including team bronzes in the senior women's and junior men's competitions.

While the uphill and trail specialists had their races on Friday and Saturday, the final day of the European Off Road Running Championships on Sunday (June 7) was the turn of the classic up and down races for juniors and seniors, Adrian Stott reports.

Courses of 13.1km with 825 metres of climb for the seniors and 5.8km with 325 metres of climb for the juniors were designed to test both uphill and downhill skills.

The under-20 men were first off, followed by the under-20 women.

U20 men

After the initial road section out of the town, Britain’s Ewan Busfield was in a group with the French duo Basile Astier and Yannick Memheld as they hit the climb.

At the 2.5km timing check, France’s Astier led from Great Britain’s Busfield by three seconds with Yannick Memheld, joint winner in the uphill race on Friday, in third, 20 seconds back.

By 3.5km, Astier, in 17:21, had opened a lead of 20 seconds from Memheld, in 17:41, who in turn was ahead of Busfield in third, with 18:01. Aron Rodal Haugen of Norway was also in contention, in fourth.

These positions were to stay unchanged, with Astier taking the title in 23:58, 39 seconds ahead of his compatriot Memheld, with Busfield holding off a strong challenge from Haugen for a superb bronze medal.

France comfortably took the team gold ahead of Italy.

Backing Busfield up, Ben Hodson and Lachlan Thomas in 12th and 13th with Adam Bentham in 18th secured team bronze for GB & NI.

U20 women

Julia Ehrle, bronze medallist from Friday’s uphill race, led from the start and dominated the race.

Reaching the summit at 2.5km in 11:21, Ehrle held a 30-second lead over a group that included Hungary’s Ágota Szabó, Italians Licia Ferrari and Martina Ghisalberti, Czech Anna Kynclova and GB’s Nancy Corrie.

Between the next timing point at 3.5km, several athletes apparently went off course, resulting in a change in positions.

Ehrle led from Szabó, with Switzerland’s Rahel Good and Spain’s Sofia Rubio now in third and fourth.

Ferrari, Corrie, Kynclova, the joint champion from Friday’s uphill race and Ghisalberti seemed most affected by their diversion, and although getting back on track, had dropped back down the field.

Ehrle stayed strong on the fast downhill back to the town to take the gold medal in 28:21, to add to the bronze medal she took in Friday’s uphill. The German, who is also talented on the track and at cross-country, again showing her versatility.

Szabó took silver for Hungary in 29:09, holding off Spain’s Rubio, who ran 29:16.

Isla Pastor just made the top 10 in ninth with 31:34, leading the GB team team home.

Constance Jenneson was 15th in 31.34. Corrie, possibly wondering what might have been, rallied after her mishap to finish 22nd in 32:17, with Graihagh Turner 36th in 33.39.

Senior men

The third race of the day saw a competitive race as Spain’s Andreu Blanes and Dominik Rolli of Switzerland, along with Germany’s Lukas Ehrle, led the initial charge out of the town.

Rolli led at 2.5km in 9:47 with Italy’s Isacco Costa on 9:54 in 2nd and Sweden’s Petter Engdahl, silver medalist from Friday’s uphill race, third at 9:54 with Spaniard Jan Torrella in touch.

By 6km, Engdahl had taken the lead from Rolli by two seconds, with Torrella now up in third.

Matt Knowles was leading the British in 12th place with Oscar Suboh-Symons in 23rd.

Spain, Italy, and Switzerland, all with three runners in the top 15 positions, were in a close battle for the team medals.

On the long final descent back into Kamnik, Torrella made a decisive move, dropping Engdahl, with Rolli still hanging on. He maintained his charge and slowly moved away to win decisively in 1:00:09.

Rolli took the silver, by now a minute behind, in 1:01:03. Engdahl added to his extensive podium finishes, clinching the bronze in 1:01:48. Cesare Maestri took fourth, leading the Italians to team gold by six points from Switzerland, with Spain third.

Knowles led the British team in 15th in 1:03:48. Oscar Suboh-Symons was 22nd in 1:04:45. Tom Wood was 36th in 1:07:17, and Finn Lydon, a late replacement for the injured Tom Hilton, 46th in 1:09:22.

Senior women

In the final race of the morning, the senior women took to the hills.

After the initial climb to 2.5km, Scout Adkin, France’s Nelie Clement, Karoline Kyte of Norway and Hanna Gröber of Germany were leading.

Great Britain, with Naomi Lang, Nancy Scott and Elle Twentyman, were packing well all in the top 10.

Gröber put her foot down on the next downhill and by the 3.5km timing point led by almost 30 seconds from a trio of Adkin, Clement and Scott.

Italy, Switzerland, GB, and Italy were all packing well for their teams.

At 6km, Gröber, with 32:30, had opened up a 25-second gap, with Scott now a clear second in 32:55. Clement was third in 33:11, with Adkin falling away to fourth in 33:31.

Gröber, who was seventh in the uphill race on Friday, stretched out her lead on the long return descent to what looked like a winning margin. Scott and Clement were in a battle for the other podium places, with Adkin holding fourth.

A delighted Gröber finished in 1:09:41, a full 90 seconds ahead of Scott, who held on for an excellent silver, holding off the challenge of the experienced Clement by seven seconds, 1:11:07 to 1:11:14.

Adkin hung on to fourth in 1:12:56.

In an exciting team tussle, Switzerland and Spain both finished with 27 points. The Swiss won by virtue of having the highest placed third runner.

Great Britain had an agonising wait on their third counter, with Lang rallying to finish 23rd in 1:18:00 ahead of the third French runner, to clinch bronze team medals. Twentyman closed in 27th with 1:20:34.

Overall, it was a successful championship for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team. Individually, they won two gold, one silver, and a bronze, with one team gold and two team bronze. There were also some promising performances from athletes earning their first GB vests.

Full results here.