Serhiy Lebid (ph. Colombo/FIDAL)

Lebid, the gold hunter

Nineteen consecutive participations, from the opening edition of 1994 to that of Budapest 2012. Twelve times on the podium, with a difficult to equal record of nine European titles, one silver and two bronze medals. Serhiy Lebid, a Ukrainian who has been a member of Cover Verbania for a long time, was an athlete with peculiar characteristics. Strong but not outstanding on the track. On dry grass, and even more so on wet and muddy ones, he found the motivations to show his unique qualities. His adventure in the European cross country Championships starts from the first edition, Alnwick '94, presented to the media during the European track championship in Helsinki, suggestively titled Northumberland Challenge, named after the green and vast park of the first (and then of the second, in 1995) location.
 
The debut is a sample, just 19 years old, two and a half minutes from the first gold of the event, which went to the Lusitanian Paulo Guerra. The following year, same mud, same boss (Guerra), Lebid finished eleventh but with a certainly more reasonable margin (26"), two positions behind the italian Giuliano Battocletti. The approach to the top came two years later (1997), in the Portuguese Oeiras, where he arrived third four seconds from the silver and five from the gold of the Danish Carsten Jørgensen, after the unvictorious third participation of '96, 58th in the hostile grass of Charleroi. Italy in his destiny: second homeland, first gold, in Ferrara in 1998, in the first edition with a cast of athletes of undoubted international value. The first title is to widen everyone’s eyes: behind for most of the race, Lebid catches up and detaches the favorites in the long final sprint, the Belgian of Moroccan origins Mourhit and the outgoing champion Jørgensen, finally overtaken for the podium also by the French El Himer.
 
In 1999 (Velenje) he is seventh, the year of the new millennium sees him coming back to the podium with silver in Malmö 10" behind Guerra, author of four successes in that edition, an occurrence that put him in the condition to be considered as a ‘born to win’. But no, in 2001 Lebid opens the formidable streak of five consecutive European titles. In Thun his sprint gave no chance to the Dutch Maase, in 2002 in Medulin he won with a 5" lead over the French Essaïd and the Spanish Roncero. 2003 was Edinburgh's turn, with the overwhelming superiority of 21" seconds over another Spanish athlete at ease on the lawns, Juan Carlos de la Ossa, who also the following winter, in Heringsdorf, saw Lebid triumph, 23" away. The fifth victory that closes the most gold possible luster is in Tilburg, and once again a Spanish, Alberto Garcia, pays the first price 12" behind at the finish line. A five-out-of-five non-stop that in the history of medals of the Cross Country, at the World Championships, had succeeded only to Paul Tergat.
 
The mud of a very cold day, in San Giorgio su Legnano, punishes him with 11th place, where the Campaccio is the house of the countryside, were Mohamed Farah won. Lebid's private collection is enriched with two more consecutive golden medals: in the Iberian Toro of the 2007 edition, an arena worthy of a bullfight, with an 11" margin over the Swedish of Maghreb origins Mohamed, in 2008 in Brussels, right in front of Farah and again to Mohamed. Dublin, in 2009, denied him the gold but still found him on the podium, third behind the Spanish of Ethiopian origins Alemayehu Bezabeh and beaten again by Farah, silver. The last crown came in 2010, in Albufeira, with the smallest margin of his nine hits, 3" over Ayad Lamdassem, another naturalized Spanish athlete. The story ends in the following two years: Velenje in 2011 where he had to withdraw, in 2012 in Budapest he finished 14th.