Latvian Runners Take Second Place in Baltic Cross-Country Championships
Latvia finished second in the team standings at the Baltic Cross-Country Championships in Estonia, winning three gold medals. Last year the team placed third.
The Baltic Cross-Country Championships, an athletics event for runners from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, took place on Saturday in the Estonian town of Järvakandi. Latvia took second place in the team standings, improving on last year's third place. Latvian runners won three gold, two silver and one bronze medal in total.
It was the ninth and final Baltic championship on the 2026 athletics calendar. For the sixth time, runners from all three Baltic countries competed over cross-country distances in four age groups.
Team standings
Host nation Estonia won with 158 points and took victories in five races. Latvia finished second with 105 points and won three races. Lithuania was third with 95 points.
At the first championship of this kind in 2021 in Palanga, Latvia won with 154 points, ahead of Estonia on 101. Estonia then won the next four editions. Last year the Estonians scored 135 points, while Latvia, with 112, was third.
Latvian medallists
Poļina Curikova, Hermanis Valtass and Ralfs Dzosens became Baltic champions. Elza Priedīte and Daniels Ķepals won silver, and Asnate Caune took bronze.
Dzosens won the junior 6 km race in 18:22, Valtass took the 4 km youth race in 12:03, and Curikova was fastest in the 3 km girls' race with 10:20. In the men's 8 km, Latvia's best was Roberts Glazers, who finished fifth (24:47). In the women's 6 km, Elīna Gumarova was Latvia's top finisher in eighth place (22:02).
Latvia's junior and women's teams did not field a full line-up of three runners.
