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Charlotte Purdue was a DNS at the Zatopek 10,000 won by Rose Davies in hot and windy conditions in 32:58 and bits. Jack Rayner won the men's race in 28:16.
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The historic Cinque Mulini cross country meeting put on a bit of a show for their 90th edition - there was a brass band playing inbetween races and for all the victory ceremonies, a kids' parade of about 50 or 60 flags (I think of all the nations who've been represented at the meeting in the past) and also some TV shots of geese and chickens too! (There's several farmhouses along the course)
I believe they used to run through 5 different mills but these days the Senior men go through the same little mill once on each of their 5 laps. It's still unique though, has the effect of forcing everyone to go single file and occasionally someone trips going up the steps on the way out of the mill.
As expected, Theresiah Muthoni Gateri & Zenah Jemutai Yego went 1-2 in the Women's race. Klara Lukan (SLO), Anna Arnaudo & Martina Merlo ran well for 3rd, 5th & 6th with Lukan not too far behind the winner.
Nadia Battocletti dropped out just before the mill on the 2nd lap - a bad asthma attack, I believe. I saw her in a bad way last year after the Italian 1500m championship, lying on the track almost motionless for 5 minutes. This time though she was sitting up as the medics attended to her.
In the Men's race non-Africans didn't get a look-in with athletes from 5 African nations filling out the top 12. It was a good race though with 4 together with 200m to go. Nibret Melak (ETH) clearly loves it here, retaining his title from last year. Pre-race favourite Tadese Worku was 3rd behind Kenya's Levy Kibet. Oscar Chelimo was 8th.
The World Cross Country Tour stays in Italy next Sunday for the Cross della Vallagarina in Rovereto.Comment
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Interesting Women's race at the Spanish Cross Country Championships on Sunday. Early on Carolina Robles and 22yo Carla Gallardo established a good lead over a large pack, and were eventually closely tracked by Likina Amebaw (ETH). Then around 6.5km of the 10.2km race, with the 3 of them around 40s up on the field, Amebaw just blew their doors off and within about 600m had a 10 second lead. Not long after this the pre-race favourite for the Spanish title, Carolina Robles, just started falling apart. Previously this cross country season she'd carried all before her on the domestic front. This left the way open for Carla Gallardo, having by far the race of her life, to win her first senior Spanish title. Robles ended up 7th almost a minute down on Gallardo.
No such surprises in the Men's race with Adel Mechaal (2 days after a 7:36.5 3000m PB in Karlsruhe), Nassim Hassaous & Santiago Catrofe (URU) leading the way over a strong field.
I'm always impressed by how virtually every one of Spain's top athletes (say their best 10 or 15 on both sides) gets out and runs cross country. Most of them have raced a ton of it this winter, many fitting in a couple of road races too. Yes, their XC courses aren't exactly Parliament Hill but there's a few of them that are reasonably demanding in terms of elevation change (such as Elgoibar, Alcobendas & Italica) and the footing isn't always that secure - e.g., rocky/gravelly parts.Last edited by LuckySpikes; 01-02-22, 00:07.Comment
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Jemma Reekie definitely working on her speed this year. PBs over 400 and 600 on 1 Feb: 55.57 and 1.26.76.Comment
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After what happened to her in Tokyo, I'm not surprised.Originally posted by Occasional Hope View PostComment
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Nice demanding course at the European Champion Clubs Cross Country in Portugal, live streaming now at https://www.rtp.pt/play/direto/rtpdesporto1 (no geo-blocking).
7 mins into the women's race and Steph Twell is right up there in the lead pack.Comment
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It was really good to see the European Champion Clubs Cup XC back.
Likina Amebaw (ETH) won the Women's race. This would be no surprise to anyone who saw her blow the field apart at the Spanish Championships last weekend. Ireland's Michelle Finn rang strongly in 5th and Steph Twell faded a bit to finish 9th after running in 6th for much of the race.
Turkey are developing some decent native female distance runners. Yayla Gunen was 4th here and in Valencia on Wednesday Emine Hatun Mechaal ran 8:55 over 3000. You may remember her from Euro age group championships as Emine Hatun Tuna but she's now married to Adel Mechaal and she's had a nice season on the World Cross Country Tour.
Playas de Castellon won the team title with scorers Amebaw, Blanca Fernandez (6th) & Cristina Espejo (8th). AF&D were 4th.
In the Men's race Rodrigue Kwizera (BDI) won his gajillionth XC race of the season. Jacob Kiplimo was a DNS but his brother Oscar Chelimo was 2nd. I'm interested to see if Kwizera can translate his XC form to sub-13/sub-27 times on the track this year.
There were no native Turks counting for the winners of the team title, Ankara Ego Sport Club - Arikan (6th), Haileselassie (8th) & Ozbilen (15th). Central AC representing Britain finished way way down.
In the Mixed Relay Winnie Nanyondo ran the final leg for the dominant winners Playas de Castellon. Mariana Machado brought Sporting Club de Braga home for 2nd and a strong run by Salome Afonso meant that Sporting Club de Portugal overhauled AF&D's Amy Griffiths for the bronze.
Full results at https://lap2go.com/en/event/eccc-cro...e-results.htmlLast edited by LuckySpikes; 06-02-22, 13:49.Comment
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Just read that Gjert Ingebrigtsen is unwell and has stepped down from coaching role with his sons, who are now coaching themselves. More info here:
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Some very unexpected, but nonetheless exciting news from Ian Hodge's very helpful Twitter page.... Katie Head, still just 22 years old, has smashed her hammer PB by over 4 meters with new figures of 69.72m! She now goes to 2nd on the UK all time list, and even more impressively, she managed this is what must have been torrid weather conditions in Woodford (I live in the London borough of Havering which isn't too far from Woodford and the weather for most of today here has been bitterly cold, windy AND tipping down with rain on a regular basis, and I can't imagine it was much different for Head.)Last edited by RunUnlimited; 13-02-22, 17:01.Comment
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Yes, I'm in LB of Haringey and it's been miserable weather. I read that tweet earlier and it made me draw-up a stat. 9 of the UK All Time Top 20 WH throwers were 2021 entries, very impressive and I firmly believe a legacy of Hitchon's career, compare this to discus, only 3 of 20 came in 2021, Shot 2/20 and Jav 1/20... Well done Katie. -
That is an impressive improvement! She's actually only 22, but not an u-23 in athletics terms because her birthday is in December. -
Thanks for the correction on her age Occasional Hope (I've edited the original comment now).
And Caterhatch for whatever reason, GB's hammer throwers, both men and women, seem to be doing something right when compared to the majority of the other heavy throws in Britain (with possibly the exception of the shot put where some embers of hope can be seen in the likes of Lincoln and McKinna.)
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Adam Kszczot is hanging up his spikes. The article at https://www.european-athletics.com/n...es-retirement- lists his impressive haul of major medals, including 6 European titles indoors and out.Comment
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Mark Dry threw 70.03 at the weekend which is over the Scottish commonwealth games standard, a fine achievement considering what he’s been throughComment
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Aha, Jess Piasecki is due to run the Sevilla Marathon on Sunday. It looks like the fields will be pretty loaded, especially on the men's side. After her recent 67:20 Half I'm hoping that Jess can run 2:22 on Sunday! (That would be UK #2 all-time).
There's quite a few other Brits entered too.Comment
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I've only just cottoned on to Katie Head’s throw - great stuff.
Comes from good stock of course - Dad Paul was a 1992 Olympian in the hammer…..I’m pretty sure I first came across his name when I was competing in the Young Athletes League and he was one of the league record holders.
Also in the circle have been both Smith boys, Alex and Peter, both throwing 55m. Alex obviously was our no1 for a good while, competing in London 2012. Peter pretty much disappeared from serious competition after throwing 71m aged 21.
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Race Walking Update!
Over the last 2 weekends there's been some fine RW performances, especially by the women.
At the Oceania 20km RW Championships last weekend Jemima Montag (AUS) - 2018 Comm Games champ & 6th in Tokyo - took 14 seconds off Jane Saville's Area Record with 1:27:27.
In Pamplona at the Spanish Open 20km RW Championships Maria Perez won in 1:27:40. In 3rd place Puerto Rico's 21yo Rachelle de Orbeta missed her own NR by 10 seconds with 1:33:41. She currently sits in a World Rankings quota place for Eugene though.
In the absence of Miguel Angel Lopez & Alvaro Martin (1-2 at the 35km Champs two weeks ago), Alberto Amzecua won the Men's race in 1:20:29 with Sweden's Perseus Karlstrom somwehat off the pace in 6th, 1:22:48. In 3rd place Paul McGrath (Spanish!) had a fine race, taking over 2 minutes off his PB with 1:21:43. He doesn't turn 20 for 3 weeks yet.
At the South American RW Championships in Lima the weekend before last it was again the performances in the Women's races that really caught the eye. In the 35km, Paola Perez, Magaly Bonilla & Johana Ordonez (all Ecuador) were all inside 2:50, Perez winning in 2:48:27, with Evelyn Inga (PER) also inside the 2:54:00 Eugene standard.
In the Women's 20km they went out at a conservative pace, 47:30 at halfway, but the Area Record holder, 21yo Glenda Morejon (ECU) showed a fine turn of pace to cover the second half in 43:40 taking 50s out of Kimberley Garcia Leon (PER), 42 of those seconds in the last 5km covered by Morejon in 21:18. Nevertheless, it was good to see something of a return to form for Garcia Leon (7th at Worlds 2017) after the major knee surgery she had in late 2019. The other 2 big guns of women's South American RW, Sandra Lorena Arenas (COL) & Erica De Sena (BRA) were both absent. However, it was good to see 2 nations represented here who have little to no tradition in RW. In the 20km Natalia Alfonso (VEN) walked well for a click inside 1:42 and there were 2 Chilean women in the 35km.
By contrast the men, some world class athletes among them, didn't seem up for it with the winning times well outside the Eugene standards.
There's quite a bit of Race Walking coming up on the live streams in the next few weeks ...- 20 Feb - Japanese 20km RW Championships & U20 RW Championships
- 4-5 Mar - World RW Team Championships (Oman) - will be on the WA YouTube channel
- 20 Mar - All Japan RW Tournament - usually this is also the Asian RW Championships but that part of it has been cancelled again because Japan still aren't letting foreigners in
- 2 Apr - Podebrady (CZE) - World Tour Gold
- 3 Apr - Balkan RW Championships (GRE) - streaming not certain for this
GB have selected our team for that World RW Team Championships (a big deal in the RW world) though disappointingly (again!) no athletes have been selected for the U20 races - https://worldathletics.org/competiti...walking-muscatComment
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Missed this - Eilish McColgan's run 14.48 on the roads in Dubai! McColgan sets UK 5km record - weekly round-up - AW (athleticsweekly.com). She's doing a HM next Saturday.Comment
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