It’s often the abiding question: just what will be the outcome in competition of all those weeks of winter training?

Emelia Gorecka, of Great Britain, and Yemaneberhan Crippa, of Italy, showed on Saturday why they are among the finest young distance runners in the world.

The European Athletics website homepage will have a live stream of the Great Edinburgh XCountry on Saturday from 13:00 to 14:30 GMT.

A winter would not be a winter without Pavel Maslak winning a 400m gold medal and if that happens in March the noise at the 02 Arena in Prague will be electric.

“Little Mole”, the world-famous cartoon character created by Czech animator Zdeněk Miler, has become the official patron of the Prague 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships.

Gemma Steel is one of four gold medalists from the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Samokov last month who will be looking to start the New Year in style on Saturday.