23rd May 2013 08:23
After two days of competition, Fiamme Gialle, of Italy, and Plays de Castellon, of Spain, were level on 127 points each.
The title went to the Italians because they had secured more individual victories - seven to three – and 12 months on, Fiamme are back ready to keep hold of their Cup crown at the same venue and with Castellon once more ready to push them all the way again.
Along with these two clubs, six more will be battling to win the Cup.
They are Sparta AM (Denmark), Entende Franconville Cesame Val d’Oise (France), Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers (Great Britain), Sport Lisboa e Benfica (Portugal), Luch Moscow (Russia) and Fenerbache Sport Club (Türkiye).
Once more, Fiamme will be strong with two of their individual winners from 2012 returning.
Gianmarco Tamberi took the high jump last year with 2.23m and he remains one of the most promising youngsters in the event.
Now 20, he progressed in 2012 to finish fifth at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki in a year where he took his personal best to 2.31m and followed that up with an indoor best of 2.30m this winter.
But the presence of Russia’s Luch Moscow throughout will be a threat, and particularly in this event where they arrive with one of the biggest names in the event, Sergey Mudrov, the gold medallist from the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Göteborg in March.
He triumphed then with 2.35m and has a best of this summer of 2.24m.
Fiamme’s Nicola Vizzoni is also back looking to retain his individual crown in the hammer after winning last year with 76.17m while Allan Scott, of Shaftesbury, should go quick in the 110m hurdles and Entende’s Ndiss Badji will take all the beating in the long jump. The Senegalese athlete was sixth in the Olympic final in Beijing in 2008 with 8.16m.
Russia’s women team from Luch Moscow return to Portugal once more as the favourites as they look to lift this European Champion Clubs Cup title for a 17th successive time.
And at the helm of their side is one of the greatest hammer throwers in history - Tatyana Lysenko, the Olympic and world champion.
Lysenko won this event in 2012 with 71.96m ahead of her triumph in London where she took gold with an Olympic record of 78.18m.
But overall Moscow’s level of consistency is outstanding and a year ago, they won with 144 points from Valencia Terra i Mar, of Spain, with 118, and Türkiye’s Enka Spor Kulubu with 117.5.
Those three teams are joined by USK Praha (Czech Republic), CA Montreuil 93 (France), Birchfield Harriers (Great Britain), Dundrum South Dublin (Ireland) and Sporting Clube de Portugal in this Senior Group A competition.
The Moscow side had nine individual victories last year, with brilliant performances in the field events where they won the high jump, long jump, pole vault, discus, hammer and javelin.
Along with Lysenko, teammate Anastasiya Savchenko, who won with 4.20m in the pole vault, is back to defend her individual title.