A beautiful sunny day that promises to be the day of today's march with the European Cup.
The temperature is around 16° Celsius, with the humidity reaching an excellent 56% and with a slight north-west wind variable between 5 and 10m/sec.
50km men
Punctual departure at 8.00 am (7.00 am for Central Europe) and the 41-year-old Yohann Diniz (FRA) leaves for what we imagine will be a head race. We'll see.
- at 5km
Lead the race Yohann Diniz (FRA) in 22:42
Second place for Marco De Luca (ITA) in 23:18 in front of Ato Ibanez (SWE) in 23:18 which in turn precedes Aurelien Quinion (FRA) in 23.23
The other Italians: Michele Antonelli (ITA) is 13th in 23:25, Andrea Agrusti (ITA) is 24th in 23:37 while Gregorio Angelini (ITA) is 39th
Red cards: one for bent knee against Yohann Diniz (FRA) and Marc Tur (ESP), one for lack of contact with Andrei Gafita (ROU)
- at 10km
Lead the race Yohann Diniz (FRA) in 44:22
Second place for Marco De Luca (ITA) in 46:12 in front of Ato Ibanez (SWE) in 46:12 which in turn precedes Dzymitry Dziubin (BLR) e Aleksy Oyala (FIN) in 46:31
The other Italians: Michele Antonelli (ITA) is 13th, Andrea Agrusti (ITA) is 24th while Gregorio Angelini (ITA) is 39th
Red cards: three for bent knee against Marc Tur (ESP), one for bent knee against Yohann Diniz (FRA) , one for lack of contact with Andrei Gafita (ROU)
- from 20km to 40km
The race also becomes quite boring, with Yohann Diniz always making his pace with these split times:
- 20km: 1:28:40
- 25km: 1:49:54
- 30km: 2:11:53
- 35km: 2:33:18
- 40km: 2:54:34
In the last 10km Joao Vieira (POR) advances who was in fifth position at 40km, passes third at 45km and will reach third.
Victory to Yohann Diniz (FRA) in 3:37:43
Second place to Dzmitriy Dziubin (BLR) in 3: 45.51
Third place to Joao Vier (POR) in 3:46:38.
The itlaians:
- Michele Antonelli is the first of the Italians and finishes 9th in 3:52:09
- Marco De Luca arrives 19th in 3:58:54
- Gregorio Angelini arrives 30th in 4:30:26
- Andrea Agrusti stops at 45km when he was 14th in 3:32:13.
LOC report
50km world record holder Yohann Diniz returned to his best form after injury and illness to win the 50km race walk title in a championship record. Neither heat – nor recent injury concerns – proved a stop to the Frenchman, 41, who was never in danger of missing out on his third title in the competition’s history.
His pace was metronomic – 4:25 per lap – and he stuck to it, except for a fast finish, to finish in 3:37:43 which was remarkable in the circumstances. His winning time was the third fastest of his career, bettered only by his world record of 3:32:12 which he set at the 2014 European Championships in Zurich and his championship record time of 3:33:12 from the IAAF World Championships in London two years ago.
As Diniz shaved more than three minutes off Vladimir Kanaykin’s long-standing championship record, a very distant second went to Dzmitry Dziubin from Belarus who made a breakthrough leap to the podium after joining Diniz’s chasers at the 22km mark. The Belarusian gradually forged a gap over the rest, walking the last 20km on his own to notch a 3:45:51 clocking – a PB by more than two minutes.
The bronze was something of another surprise on a morning of quite a few in four races. At 43, Portugal’s João Vieira prevailed to win his first 50km medal in a major competition – and nine years since he won silver in the European Championships in the 20km race walk. In fact, it was his duel with Artur Brzozowski and Brendan Boyce that provided the race’s true excitement. For much of the second half, the three of them duelled, never more than a few seconds apart. Irishman Boyce had to give way just after the 40 kilometre mark but he still walked to a PB – 3:48:13 for fifth – while there was a sprint between Poland’s Brzozowski and Vieira, with the Portuguese veteran edging it by four seconds.
Older still is Jesus Angel Garcia and the Spaniard, who won the inaugural edition of this event in 1996, was a creditable 15 th in 3:57:51, just months away from his 50th birthday. Garcia will still come away from Alytus with a silver medal in his hand luggage from the teams race. The Ukrainians successfully defended their team crown with 26 points, comfortably ahead of Spain (43) and Belarus (49).
50km women
Eleonora Anna Giorgi (ITA) (2km in 9:35) takes the lead, followed by Ines Henriques (POR) and Julia Tackacs (ESP) (2km in 10:08)
- at 5km:
Leads the race Eleonora Anna Giorgi (ITA) in 24:01 in front of Ines Henriques (POR) in 25:06 which in turn is in front of Khrystyna Yudkina (UKR) in 25:07. Follow Julia Takacs (ESP) and Nastssia Yatsevich (BLR) in 25:46
The other Italians: Mariavittoria Becchetti is 12th in 26:44, Federica Curiazzi is 24th in 28:08 while Beatrice Foresti is 32nd in 28:09.
Red cards: one for bent knee Paulina Buziak (POL), Maeva Casale (FRA), Beatrice Foresti (ITA)
- at 10km:
Leads the race Eleonora Anna Giorgi (ITA) in 48:18 in front of Ines Henriques (POR) in 50:06 which in turn is in front of Julya Takacs (ESP) in 50:11.
The other Italians: Mariavittoria Becchetti è 12°, Federica Curiazzi è 24° mentre Beatrice Foresti è 32°.
Red cards: tre per sbloccaggio a Paulina Buziak (POL), due per sbloccaggio per Beatrice Foresti (ITA) e Maeva Casale (FR) e una per Andrea Kovacs (HUN), Anett Torma (HUN) and Lyudmyla Shelest (UKR).
- from 20km to 45km
Also in this case the race does not say much. Always to lead in three athletes: Eleonora Anna Giorgi (ITA), Ines Henriques (POR) and Julia Takacs (ESP).
The following table tells all about the split times of the three:
| | Giorgi - at km | Giorgi - last 10km | Henriques - at km | Henriques - last 10km | Takacs - at km | Takacs - last 10km |
| | | | | | | |
| 20km | 1:36:26 | 47:58 | 1:39:51 | 49:45 | 1:39:52 | 49:41 |
| 25km | 2:00:37 | - | 2:04:43 | - | 2:04:43 | - |
| 30km | 2:25:40 | 49:20 | 2:29:38 | 49:47 | 2:29:38 | 49:47 |
| 35km | 2:45:19 | - | 2:54:39 | - | 2:53:59 | - |
| 40km | 3:15:32 | 49:52 | 3:20:24 | 50:26 | 3:18:05 | 48:27 |
| 45km | 3:40:31 | - | 3:46:57 | - | 3:42:07 | - |
In the last 5km Ines Henriques of satisfies the bronze medal, while the struggle for gold becomes an exciting affair between Giorgi and Takacs.
| | Giorgi - at km | Giorgi - last km | Takacs - at km | Takacs - last km |
| | | | | |
| 46km | 3:45:35 | 5:04 | 3:46:51 | 4:44 |
| 47km | 3:50:31 | 4:56 | 3:51:31 | 4:40 |
| 48km | 3:55:20 | 4:51 | 3:56:16 | 4:45 |
| 49km | 4:00:08 | 4:48 | 4:01:03 | 4:47 |
| 50km | 4:04:50 | 4:42 | 4:05:46 | 4:43 |
Full results of 50km in the section Results or directly download from this link: click here
LOC report
Eleonora Giorgi lived up to her billing to claim a first European Race Walking Cup title as well as a European record over 50km on her debut at the distance and with temperatures hovering around 25C by the finish. The Italian removed the mark of 4:05:56 set by Portugal’s Ines Henriques that was originally a world best, to win in 4:04:50, and did it the hard way.
As Diniz in the men’s event, Giorgi was away from the start, forging a big lead with every stride. She hit the 10km mark in 48:18 with Henriques (50:06) marginally ahead of Spain’s Julia Takacs and Khrystyna Yudkina from Ukraine. By the 25km mark, Giorgi was more than four minutes clear and wasn’t too far off sub-four hour pace in 2:00:37.
As it turned out, the last 15km were understandably hard for Giorgi. At 31km, she still had more than four minutes over Takacs who had just moved into undisputed second. And the Spaniard – with experience at the distance – used it to good effect as she increased tempo to finish less than a minute behind Giorgi who still mounted a final rally to walk the last kilometre in 4:42.
Takacs was also under the previous European record in second, also regaining the Spanish record with 4:05:46. Henriques made up the podium in third in 4:13:57 and behind her there were personal bests for Ukraine’s Valentyna Myronchuk (4:15:50) and Nastassia Yatsevich from Belarus (4:16:39).