<p">In her
eighth participation at the Diekirch Eurocross - IAAF cross country permit -
meeting, Susanne Ritter finally managed to catch an emphatic victory in
Luxemburg. Mustafa Mohamed seemed inspired by the German winner of the women’s
race as he led the field from start to finish in the men’s competition. The
Swede was also delighted to win the Eurocross in which he has participated so
many times before.
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From the very start of the race, it was the favourite who was in command
of operations. Mustafa Mohamed gave the impression of control even though a
leading group of ten athletes was able to follow the pace of the Swede. In the
third of five laps Mohamed attacked from the front and that spread the field
apart. Moroccan Hamid El Mouaziz, who had been very active in the early stages,
faded dramatically from then on. Surprisingly, only the Moroccan Kaddour
Slimani was able to respond although he never really could close the gap with
Mohamed.
On the final lap, Sliman dug deep and produced fine burst of
acceleration, but Mohamed held off that late threat too. The strongest
finishing effort was made by Paulo Guerra. The Portuguese was trailing in 12th
place for most of the race but made a strong move to finally finish in third
place. “It was definitely my best race of the season”, said Guerra. “In the
penultimate lap, I kicked away and overtook a lot of competitors”.