Hugo Milner so close to a medal at European Cross Country Championships

Rapidly-emerging triathlon star Hugo Milner agonisingly missed out on a medal in the senior men’s race at the European Cross Country Championships in Brussels on Sunday.

The 25-year-old qualified for the Championships with a clear-cut victory at the Liverpool Cross Challenge in late November.

But after a near-disastrous start in old-school muddy conditions when he nearly slipped as the race began, he barely put a foot wrong.

Animating the race

He was the one driving the pace at the front with eventual winner Yann Schrub of France for the first three quarters of the 9km event.

But when Schrub kicked on the fifth of six laps he put daylight between himself and Milner, who switched to triathlon just a couple of years ago and this season notched a breakthrough success when running through the field to land the World Triathlon Cup Miyazaki in Japan last month.

Norway’s Magnus Tuv Myrhe and home hope Robin Hendrix then bridged up to Milner and relegated him to fourth but he fought back in great style and the three of them settled down to fight for silver and bronze.

Unfortunately for Milner he was the one to miss out but it was a fine performance and a massive improvement on last year’s 32nd place as he stopped the clock in 30:27, 10 seconds behind the winner and seven and five seconds adrift of Myhre and Hendrix respectively.

Great Britain and Northern Ireland ended a memorable day with seven gold medals at the Championships, their best ever tally.

The focus now switches back to triathlon for Milner, with a training camp in Australia coming next and going into 2024 he’ll aim to be one of the men battling for a spot alongside already-qualified Alex Yee in the Team GB squad for the Paris Olympics.