Diputacion Valencia Club Atletismo reclaimed the women’s title after an 11 year lull while Sporting Clube de Portugal ended their 26 year wait to take the men’s title in the European Champions Club Cup in Castellon.
The women’s title was confidently taken by Valencia with 222 points, while Sporting took second in 217 after being crucially disqualified from the 4x100m on day one, as Castellon placed third with 193 points.
While in the men’s it was a much tighter contest between the top three as Sporting took the win with 194 points, Castellon came second with 189.5 points and Enka placed third with a close 188.5 points.
Inchide gives Sporting a shot at title
The first win of day two went to Castellon in the men’s discus as Diego Casas threw 63.05m to take a confident three metre victory over his next competitor.
But in the men’s triple jump it was Enka’s Necati Er, the former European U23 champion, who came out victorious with 16.37m ahead of Pablo Torrijos, for Castellon, who jumped 16.14m.
Although in the men’s 110m hurdles, Castellon found their way back to the top with Daniel Cisneros storming to a narrow 13.73 win over the Enka athlete, Mikdat Sevler, who finished in 13.78.
Meanwhile in the women’s shot put, Sporting took their first win of the second day with Jessica Inchude’s, an Olympic finalist, dominant display that saw her throw a season’s best of 19.11m.
In the women’s 100m hurdles it was a tight contest between Lerato Pages of Castellon and Paula Blanquer of Valencia, as the duo were separated by 0.002 via photo finish with the former awarded the win.
Then the men’s 800m saw a steady first lap as the field stayed tight together, but as the bell rang the pace picked up and the pack started to stretch out. But with just over 200m to go, David Garcia of Sporting made his move.
It seemed certain that the Portuguese athlete would tire as his attack was so strong, but Garcia maintained his speed and took the win in 1:51.94.
Sporting also took the win in the women’s hammer with Dutchwoman Katrine Jacobsen throwing 70.70m in the first round, which would have been enough for the win, before extending her best to 71.44m.
Back on the track in the women’s 1500m, Sporting carried on their success with Patricia Silva, a world indoor 800m bronze medallist, controlling the race before pulling away over the last 100m to take the win comfortably in 4:30.64.
After a long competition, Juan Luis Bravo for Castellon came out on top in the men’s pole vault with 5.50m, marking the sixth time this season the 22-year-old has cleared that height or more.
While the men’s 3000m steeplechase saw Leandro Monteiro take yet another dominant win for Sporting, as the 22-year-old crossed the line in 8:48.75, around seven seconds ahead of Wilson Marquez, of Enterprise Sport and Service, in second place.
Emmanuel Eseme, the African 100m champion, decided that a championship record on day one was not enough as the he stormed to a more than comfortable 20.31 win in the 200m for yet another championship record.
He led Harrow Athletic Club’s Jahde Williams who finished second in 20.83 and VSK Univerzita Brno’s Eduard Kubelik in third with 20.88.
While in the women’s 200m it was Valencia’s Esperanca Cladera, a world relays bronze and silver medallist, who took the big win in 22.89.
Brescia’s Gloria Hooper came in for second with 23.15, just ahead of Harrow’s Millie King who clocked 23.26 for third.
Then in the women’s 5000m, once again, Sporting took a dominant win with Tirhas Gebrehiwet, a 19-year-old Ethiopian, storming across the line in 16:15.65, nearly seven seconds ahead of her next competitor.
It was a similar theme in the men’s 3000m as Sporting’s Jose Carlos Pinto, who has 12 Portuguese titles over various disciplines, floated down the home straight, encouraging the crowd, to take the win in 8:02.73.
But the women’s long jump proved to be a tight competition, with Enka’s Tugba Danismaz, the former European indoor champion and European silver medallist in triple jump, taking the win with a fifth-round effort of 6.48m.
She took the win over Valencia’s Evelyn Yankey and Vughste Sportclub Prins Hendrik who both jumped 6.38m but the former was awarded second place due to count back.
Men’s javelin was the final field event of the weekend, with Castellon’s Rafael Mahiques, the reigning European U20 champion, taking an impressive win with three throws over 70m and his best measuring at 70.79m.
As the even neared its end, the 4x400m was the last event to decide the women’s title and despite Sporting controlling the race and taking a comfortable win in 3:33.16, it wasn’t quite enough to take the overall title.
Valencia, desperate to confirm their first women’s title in these championships since 2015, surged down the final straight to take fourth and finish five points ahead of Sporting in the final standings.
Meanwhile the men’s 4x400m concluded the weekend, and it was Sporting who confidently took hold of the race and won in 3:06.35 to finally win the men’s ECCC title after 26 years.
Enka took second in 3:07.39 in an attempt to bump themselves up to second, but it wasn’t quite enough with the home team, Castellon, keeping in touch and crossing the line third in 3:09.10 to finish second overall in the standings.