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

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). 

20km women

 

 

 

The unforeseeable happens between 11 and 14km. Antonella Palmisno, who seemed to be dominating the race, has an incredible drop out and is joined by Raquel Gonzalez (ESP), Laura Garcia-Caro (ESP) and Zivilé Vaiciukeviciute (LTU) who race in an indescribable cheer.

 

At 15km the three are in the lead. And a head to head that will last for 5km begins. The three all want the victory now that the occasion of the Palmisano crisis has presented itself.

At 16km: Raquel Gonzalez (ESP) and Zivilé Vaiciukeviciute (LTU) in 1:11:54, detached by 10m Laura Garcia-Caro.

At 17km: the situation is unchanged but Laura Garcia Caro is much closer

At 18km: Zivilé Vaiciukeviciute (LTU) took the lead in 1:20:57 and Laura Garcia-Caro (ESP) follows in 1:20:58, while Raquel Gonzalez (ESP) is third in 1:21:00. Followed by Inna Kashina (UKR), Ana Cabecinha (POR) and Eleonora Dominici (ITA).

At 19km: the Lithuanian gained another few meters (1:25:27) on the Garcia-Caro (1:25:30) and on the Gonzalez (1:25:38). Follow Inna Kashina (1:26:00), Ana Cabecinha (1:26:35) and Eleonora Dominici (1:26:44).

 

 

 

 

 

On arrival:

Victory for Zivilé Vaiciukeviciute (LTU) in 1:29:48

Second place for Laura Garcia-Caro (ESP) in 1:29:55

Third place for Raquel Gonzalez (ESP) in 1:30:17

Fourth place for Inna Kashina (UKR) in 1:30:33

Fifth place for Ana Cabecinha (POR) in 1:31:12

Sixth place for Eleonora Dominici (ITA) in 1:31:30

LOC report
 

The women’s 20km race walk produced the race of the day – and the result of the day if you are Lithuanian - as Zivile Vaiciukeviciute produced something of a surprise performance with victory on home soil. Bronze medallists two years ago, the home nation was fancied to do well as a collective again, and maybe Brigita Virbalyte-Dimsiene would be in the lead group. But she looked slightly shocked as her understudy at the European Championships last year lapped her in the closing stages. Even then the fierce fight for gold was far from over. Vaiciukeviciute inched ahead of Spain’s Raquel Gonzalez but then Laura García-Caro picked up the pace to push the joyful Lithuanian all the way to the line. Halfway through the final lap, Garcia-Caro was making ground, but as both made the final turn, the eventual winner dug deep to forge home. 

From the start, defending champion Antonella Palmisano set out her stall and for half a kilometre European champion Maria Perez gave chase before easing back to settle in a group of 10. Two laps later, Perez was disappearing back down the field and already 43 seconds behind the leader. The European champion from last year was clearly in trouble, and going backwards. Despite her status as event poster girl in her hometown, maybe the pressure also got to Virbalyte-Dimsiene, who walked a national record 1:27:59 for fourth at Berlin 2018, but was never in contention today. 

Instead the baton was picked up by Vaiciukeviciute who set a national U23 record with 1:28.07 in that same race to finish fifth. She was right up with a group of six as Palmisano turned the screw, but the best laid plans of race favourites often go astray and lap 13 proved unlucky for Palmisano as her early strength visibly drained. Vaiciukeviciute and Gonzales drew level, and although the Italian tried everything, the elastic snapped at at the 14km checkpoint. 

For the first time in the day, local voices were cheering a possible home win and even the course commentator got in on the act to urge the crowd to up the decibels with ‘Vaiciukeviciute’ as a chant turned into three syllables. It was evident the medals were headed to the front three at 15km (1:11:54) and when Gonzales’s head was thrown back trying to gulp air over the closing stages, 23-year-old Vaiciukeviciute knew she was about to win her first major honour. 

On a warm afternoon in Alytus, Vaiciukeviciute set a season’s best of 1:29:48 to defeat the Spanish duo of Garcia-Caro (1:29:55) and Gonzalez (1:30:17). Perez faded to eleventh in 1:34:08 while reigning champion Palmisano, who was such a convincing winner in Podebrady two years ago, was a non-finisher.