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| Italy's Matteo Giupponi won the men's 20km race at the European Athletics Race Walking permit meeting in Podebrady with a personal best of 1:22:36 on Saturday. |
Italy’s Matteo Giupponi triumphed in the men’s 20km walk race at the 79th Podebrady walking meeting, the third of this year’s four European Athletics Race Walking permit meetings, in a personal best of 1:22:36 on Saturday.
The 22-year-old Bergamo took 34 seconds off his best, achieved when taking the bronze medal at the 2009 European Athletics U23 Championships.
“I had the race under control from the start,” said Giupponi, who went through the halfway point in 40:58 before throwing down the gauntlet in the second half of the race.
Second was Germany’s Carsten Schmidt, who also clocked a personal best with 1:22:47 after an excellent final five kilometers when he closed the gap considerably on his Italian rival. A distant third was Spain´s Benjamin Sanchez in 1:25:00.
In sunny but slightly windy conditions, Spain’s Eva Maria Iglesias won the women’s 20km race in a personal best of 1:34:28.
Second was Italy’s Anna Eleonora Giorgi in 1:34:44 while another Spanish walker Ainhoa Pineda was the third woman home in 1:35:07.
The women’s pre-race favourite and local hope Zuzana Schindlerova, the 2009 European Athletics U23 Championships 20km silver medallist, could do no better than ninth in 1:39:44 and didn’t even take the Czech title as her compatriot Lucie Pelantova was seventh in 1:37:19.
German walkers won both the junior races.
The 2009 World Youth Championships 10,000m gold medallist Hagen Pohle covered the 10km on the roads in 42:13 to win the junior race in Podebrady for the second year in succession.
Pohle should be among the medal contenders at this summer’s European Athletics Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia. He finished more than a minute in front of his compatriot Marcel Lehberg, who came home in 43:46.
Charlyne Czychy won the junior women’s race in 48:49 while Czech Republic’s Anezka Drahotova, still only 15, was second in 49:34. She finished ahead of Italy’s 2010 Youth Olympic Games winner Anna Clemente, who was third in 50:20.
There were wins for Italy’s men and Spain’s women in the senior races while Italy took the junior men’s honour and hosts Czech Republic were the winners in the junior women’s team competition.
The complete results can be found at this link on the Czech athletics federation website:
http://online.atletika.cz/vysledky.aspx?idk=13298
The fourth and final European Athletics Race Walking permit meeting will be the 18th Dublin International Grand Prix of Race Walking in the Irish capital on 26 June.