Benfica became the first club to beat Playas de Castellón in the mixed relay in the fourth ever running of the event at the Albufeira 2025 European Champions Clubs Cup Cross Country in Portugal on Sunday (2).
Both the Portuguese and Spanish club brought powerful quartets to the event and Benfica got off to a strong start with Portugal track and cross country international José Carlos Pinto handing over just in front of Fenerbahce's Omer Bozdag, the pair covering the opening 1565m long lap in 4:14:
Crucial leg by Jebet
However, Kenyan Sheila Jebet quickly sprinted away from the her rivals and a leg of 4:33 over the 1500m lap gave Benfica a 14-second advantage over Playas de Castellón who had deployed Mohamed Reda (4:18) and Mireya Arnedillo (4:55) on their opening legs.
Benfica then rolled out Isaac Nader, fourth in last year’s World Athletics Indoor Championships 1500 and a 3:30.84 performer on the track, for the 1500m third leg and he responded with a solid 4:08.
Meanwhile, Abderrahman El Khayami ran five seconds quicker for Playas de Castellón, trimming the lead to ten seconds on the final leg with Ugandan Olympian Winnie Nanyondo to come on the final ling leg of 1585m.
However, Benfica’s Salomé Afonso, herself a European and world indoor finalist over 1500m, kept her composure, running an even-paced 4:52 last leg to hold off Nanyondo and take the win by 11 seconds, leaving the Spanish club to settle for silver this time.
Bronze went to Sporting Clube de Portugal’s quartet of João Santos, Marta Castro, Nuno Pereira and Patricia Silva, the latter running an outstanding last leg to move the Portuguese club into the bronze medal positions, going past France’s DMA on the final leg.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics