Tokyo Olympic 20km champion Massimo Stano cruised to the world’s second fastest time of the season over 35km, winning the World Athletics Race Walking Tour event in Dublin, Ireland in 2:24:19 on Sunday (15).
It is also the fastest time for a European this year and brings a happy end to a frustrating year that saw the 2022 world champion from Italy miss out on a home European Athletics Championships at Roma 2024 and place fourth in the 20km and sixth in marathon mixed race walk at the Paris Olympics.
It was a qualifying time for next year’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, where he could also be joined by fourth-placed Bence Venyercsán of Hungary, who also qualified by a personal best of 2:33:49.
Robles rules on cross country
Spanish athletes dominated the Cross Internacional de Venta de Banos, a World Athletics Cross Country Tour gold meeting, on Sunday (15).
Carolina Robles, who was eighth in the 3000m steeplechase at Roma 2024, won the women’s race over the 9.3km course in 33:56, 15 seconds clear of Spain international teammate Cristina Ruiz in second.
The men’s race was won by Spain’s Nassim Hassaous, just one week on from seventh place and team gold at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Antalya, Türkiye, clocking 29:38.
Fitzgerald shines on indoor debut
Another medallist from Antalya, U20 women’s winner Innes FitzGerald of Great Britain made her first appearance indoors over 3000m at the Cardiff Met Indoor Christmas Classic, clocking in 9:04.87, to go seventh on the all-time European U20 list.
At the Corrida de Houilles 10km in France on Sunday (15), Olympic and world finalist Jimmy Gressier won in a swift 27:45, holding off French teammate Yann Schrub by three seconds. Schrub, the senior men’s winner at the Brussels 2023 SPAR European Cross Country Championships, was quickly back in action after placing sixth in Antalya last Sunday (8).
European 10,000m champion Dominic Lobalu of Switzerland won the Zurich Silvesterlauf over 5.3km in 14:29 with Swiss teammate Tadesse Abraham sixth in his farewell appearance in 14:57 on Sunday (15).
In the southern hemisphere, Istanbul 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships men’s 1500m silver medallist Neil Gourley of Great Britain was the overall winner in The Spectacle Road mile in Nelson, New Zealand, where elite women got a 32-second head start.
The British athlete, a 1500m finalist in Roma 2024 and at the Paris Olympics this summer, clocked an all-comers record of 4:03.10.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics