Magnificent Megan lands super Euro Cross silver . . . and team medals for Phoebe and Zara, too

Sunday 14th December 2025

Photo by Sam Mellish for British Athletics

Megan Keith landed a superb individual silver medal at the 2025 Euro Cross in Portugal.

The Scottish Olympian recovered from a fall only just after the start to battle into contention for the medals throughout.

And, as the 7.5k race concluded with Italian favourite Nadia Battocletti out in front to take gold, Megan maintained her own brilliant Euro Cross record with Senior Women’s silver.

That performance guided GB and Ni into the team medals with fellow Scot, Phoebe Anderson, next home in 16^th place. Silver medals for the British team was the final outcome.

Megan finished only15 seconds behind Olympic medallist Battocletti and her preparation strategy – missing the British trial at muddy Liverpool for a couple of continental European races – delivered the desired result.

After winning U20 and U23 gold in the past this was a Senior Women’s podium place after stepping up to that category for the first time.

Similarly, Phoebe stepped up after winning this event at U23 level last year and was the best of the rest in terms of the British athletes in the six-strong team.

Photo by Sam Mellish

‘The race was a bit of a mental test for me because the strategy we (British team) were following was to be aggressive but patient,’ said Megan.

‘That is what they told us yesterday in the team meeting, so that was in the top of my head during the whole race but after ten seconds I fell flat on my face.

‘I got up in around last place, so I was trying to be patient, but it was hard; I did not want to be at the back. The whole time I was trying to measure my effort, and it paid off because I could have easily overdone it.

‘My training has gone very well, I was in Tokyo in the middle of September so by the time I started training again and thinking about cross country it was until October. It has been a shorter winter to build than what I can usually do before getting into cross, but we measured it well to get here in good shape.

‘The course was really hard, when I looked it a first I thought it was not a cross country course but more of a Mario Kart video game.

‘I even skipped the lap yesterday so today it was the first time I actually run the whole course and with so many hills and jumps I had to measure myself out. It was a fun challenge.’

Photos by Sam Mellish for British Athletics

Phoebe Anderson in Portugal (photo by Sam Mellish)

Zara Redmond was the other Scot in action in Lagoa.

The young Kilbarchan AAC athlete made her bow in terms of a GB and NI vest in the opening race of the day- the U20 Women.

And Zara, who is coached by Sarah Dempsey, came up with a solid run to finish in 48th place with around 95 athletes having started the race in Portugal.

Fifth out of six in terms of the British athletes, Zara was on the podium for team gold with Innes FitzGerald having taken the individual title for the third year in a row.

Many congratulations to Zara on racing in the Euro Cross and to her family, coach and club.