Italy triumphed at 15th European Mountain Running Championship 2016: 10 medals!
"
Italian team won 3 gold, 6 silver and 1 bronze, and so in total 10 medals at the 15th European Mountain Running Championships. ,
The weather was mixed during the entire period of the races: a bit 'of sunshine but also violent downpours, but the races were held regularly, without incident.
Edited by Bruno Gozzelino (WMRA President)
Five Nations were able to send their athletes on the podium and Great Britain and Northern Ireland was second in medal table with 5 medals (2 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze). ,
Then Turkey that gained 4 medals (2 gold and 2 bronze) and Czech Rep. with also 4 medals (1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze). ,
Finally, France won 1 bronze. ,
With an excellent organisation by LOC of Arco, supported by FIDAL, and under direction of EAA, four wonderful races were held with four different nations that won the individual title.
" "VIP, coaches, athletes, spectators had the beautiful opportunity to follow every part of the race because LOC arranged 20 cameras along the track and a great video wall in the finish area.The weather was mixed during the entire period of the races: a bit 'of sunshine but also violent downpours, but the races were held regularly, without incident.
In total 202 runners took part at the four races, rrepresenting 25 Nations. ,
The first race was the junior female. ,
Michaela Stranska, second last year at the European Mountain Running Championships in Portugal, confirmed the favours of predictions and won the 2016 European title with over a minute ahead of all its rivals: 18:03 to run the km. 4,030. ,
Pretty much he has always been leading the race while behind her there were several changes of positions.
With an extremely clever tactic the Italian Giulia Zanne has recovered in the last part of the race up position after position to win the silver medal (with time of 19:08) virtually the final sprint, beating Hiedi Davies, (Great Britain and Northern Ireland) the third and bronze medal (behind for a second: 19:09) and the Polish Lucja Wiktorowicz fourth with 19:11. Davies was ninth last year at the European Mountain Running Championships in 2015. ,
With an extremely clever tactic the Italian Giulia Zanne has recovered in the last part of the race up position after position to win the silver medal (with time of 19:08) virtually the final sprint, beating Hiedi Davies, (Great Britain and Northern Ireland) the third and bronze medal (behind for a second: 19:09) and the Polish Lucja Wiktorowicz fourth with 19:11. Davies was ninth last year at the European Mountain Running Championships in 2015. ,
In the top ten two other English runners: Scarlet Dale (5.) and Laura Stark (10) with Nada Balcarczyk (Germany 6.), Agathe Tibert (France 7.), Francesca Franchi (Italy 8.) and Katerina Maternova (Czech Rep. 9.).
40 runners started and 39 finished the race.
In the ranking by nations, seven are classified teams.Great Britain and Northern Ireland won European Junior Team female title with 18 points, Italy second with 27 points and third Czech Rep. with 33 points. ,
The second race was the junior male. ,
The race was pretty much dominated by three countries: Turkey and Italy for the medals with France immediately after. Athletes of these teams occupied the top ten of the individual rankings. ,
Only one Belgian runner Maxim Drion Du Chapois was able to break the dominance of these three nations finishing fifth. Turkish Ferhat Bokzurt (second at EMRCh 2014), Mustafa Goksel (third at last year EMRCh 2015) and Abdulmuttalip Kervan are leading parties followed by the entire French team, the Belgian and the Italian Davide Magnini (fourth last year EMRCh 2015 and winner YIC 2014) and Daniel Pattis (YIC winner 2015). ,
Bokzurt managed to remove all and gained a good advantage, which allowed to become European Champion in 2016 with the 39:00 time to cover the km. 8,540. ,
Exciting the fight for second place: Magnini with an extraordinary sprint has passed a few meters from the finish line Goksel: according to the Italian in front of the turkish 39:35 with 39:36. Pittis fourth, fifth Belgian, sixth Kervan and then from seventh to tenth place the four French: Mathieu Jacquet, Johann Baujard, Robin Faricier and Sylvain Cachard.
41 runners started and 40 finished the race. ,
In the ranking by nations, seven are classified teams. ,
Obviously Champion of Europe is Turkey with 10 points, silver medal Italy with 20 points and bronze medal with 24 points. ,
The third race was the senior female. ,
Vice World Champion 2015, Emily Collinge, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, has dominated the race.He won with a time of 43:41 on km. 8,540. ,
None of his rivals was able to stay with her in the lead all the way. Behind her was the fight between Italian, Czech, Slovak, German and French runners. ,
World Champion 2013, Italian Alice Gaggi won battle for second position ending her really strong race (time clocked 44:08) and passing her teammate Sara Bottarelli third (time of 44:24): for both the first individual medal at the European Mountain Running Championships. ,
Czechian Pavla Schorna Matyasova (many times in the top ten in World and European event but only one-time medallist: bronze in 2011 at the EMRCh in Pamukkale, Turkey) finished fourth (time 44:31). Fifth was Slovakian Silvia Schwaiger (time 44:33), sixth Italian Valentina Belotti (2009 World Champion and five-time silver medallist between World and European Ch.: time 45:17), seventh British Heidi Dent (time 45:28) eighth Pens Lucia Marsanova (time 45:40), ninth French Christelle Dewalle (time 46:10) and tenth German Domenika Mayer (time 46:16). ,
Pluri-Champion Austrian Andrea Mayr was absent because she is training for marathon on the Olympics Games in 2016 at Rio. ,
52 runners started and finished. ,
In the ranking by nations, ten are classified teams.
Italy for the tenth time since 2002, when the European Championship is organized by the EAA (plus other three times in the European Ch. staged from 1995 to 2001 by WMRA) won the European title with 11 points, ahead of Great Britain and Northern Ireland silver medal with 21 points and the Czech Rep. Bronze medal with 31 points.
The fourth and last race was the male senior.
This race was a triumph of Italian team, in particular for twin brother Martin and Bernard Dematteis. ,
Third and bronze medalist was Turkish Ahmet Arslan (time of 54:09). ,
These three athletes were always leaders during all the track, km long. 12.310.The three were always in the head detached from each other. ,
But to remain in the first position up to 200 meters from the finish line was Bernard Dematteis.Sure Turkish could not go beyond the third place, a few hundred meters before the arrival Bernard waited for his brother Martin and after running with him the last straight - under the jubilation of the fans - let him win with time of 53:33. Bernard clocked 53:34. ,
This gesture has a special human significance: in 2015 Martin has seen the death of the son of eleven months of life. From there it began a dark period for Martin, his brother Bernard wanted to end up causing Martin to become European champion mountain running. ,
A podium, however the absolute level: ,
Martin Dematteis won the 1 gold at the European Championships (2016), 1 silver (2010) and 1 bronze (2014) and also 2 World bronzes (1 junior 2005 and 1 senior 2011),
Bernard Dematteis won 2 gold medals at the European Championships (2013 and 2014), 2 silvers (2008 and 2016) and 1 bronze (2011) and also 1 World Silver (2015),
Ahmet Arslan won 6 consecutive times the European Championship (2007, 2008, 2009,2010, 2011, 2012) and he won also 2 European bronze medals (2013 and 2016) and also 1 silver (2011) and 1 bronze (2008) at the World Championships. ,
In the top ten British arrived Andrew Douglas (4), the two other Italian Cesare Maestri (5.) and Xavier Chevrier (7), two Czech Jan Janu (6.) and Robert Kupricka (10) Swiss Christian Mathys (8.) and French Julien Rancon (9.). ,
69 runners started and 66 finished the race. ,
In the ranking by nations, fifteen are classified teams. ,
Italy won all European Team Senior Championships starting from the first edition in 2002 (before won also six of seven european title in the european competition syaged by WMRA): also in 2016 Italy dominated with 8 points. Silver medal was Czech Rep. with 29 points and third Great Britain and Northern Ireland with 33 points. ,
EAA Vice President Senior Dobromir Karamarinov (Bulgaria) and EAA Council Members Gregor Bencina (Slovenia) were present at the event. ,
Also Bruno Gozzelino, WMRA President, invited by Chairman of LOC, Franco Travaglia, attended to the competition. ,
Next year the 16th European Mountain Running Championships will be held in Slovenia at Kamnik on Saturday 8th July 2017.
Results are available at following email address:http://www.arco2016.com/clientfiles/press/7.pdf
Edited by Bruno Gozzelino (WMRA President)
Source of the pictures (LOC):
on front page:
- Italian team with trophies won,
on second page:
- Stranska,
- Bozturk,
- Collinge,
- twin brother Dematteis.
"