On October 8th 2022 we witnessed the 1st IAU 50 km European Championships that took place in Sotillo de la Adrada, Avila, Spain. It was great to see how local community organize such important international running event. During few days we seen great work and most important many supporters along the racecourse cheering runners in beautiful but challenging 5 km loop.
It all started on Saturday morning when all federations arrived to starting point and assemble around federations support tents. Exactly at 9 am the 1st Championships started and over 90 runners crossed start/finish line.
In the women competition a number of Great Britain runners took lead along with one Romanian, Polish, two runners from Ireland and few from host country Spain. At 7.5 km Liliana Dragomir (ROM) was leading but closely followed by 3 runners from Great Britain, as well as from Czech, Poland and Ireland. We had 2 women from Spain as well. Over time strong front runners group was establish including Rebecca from Great Britain, Catriona from Ireland, Alison and Sally both from Great Britain, Dominika from Poland, Yesica and Pilar both from Spain. This group was going strong from 30 up to 40km. In the last 10 km Caitriona, Alison, Rebecca, Sally and Dominika made small gap between rest of the pack and it was clear that medals will be decided between those athletes. In the end Caitriona had the most energy and took lead and won the 1st European Championships. Closely followed by Alison. Dominika from Poland was fighting till the end with Sally and secured bronze medal. In top 5 we had 3 athletes from Great Britain and women team from this country won Team gold medal. In top 15 we had at leas 3 athletes from Spain and Croatia and those team manage to be on podium in team competition as well. Spain was second and Croatia took 3rd place and bronze medal. We had very strong women from Ireland as well but as there were only two runners (winner and 6th place) Ireland was not classified in the team competition.
In the men competition we were expecting that number of runners from Great Britain and Spain will take lead and there were no surprises. In leading group we had 6 runners from GBR, Spain had 4 runners, at least 2 runners from Germany and Poland. It was expected that in team competition it will be strong battle between Great Britain and Spain but we could not forget about Germany, Netherlands and Poland. On the challenging course the first 10 km were open below 35 min by 15 runner. This was very strong pace and we could expect many results below 3h even on this hilly course with almost 70m elevation gained on each lap. After 20 km in top 10 we had only runners from Great Britain, Spain and one runner form Poland. This strong pace was kept for another 3 laps. After 37.5 km in from we had two men from Spain, Houssame and Alberto, followed by 6 runners from great Britain, one from Lithuania, and another one from Spain. All of them were inside 3 minutes from each other. When runners completed marathon mark it was clear that only Spain and Great Britain will fight for medals. Houssame and Alberto (both Spain) run away and made small leading group. Both kept the positions one and two till the end of the Championship. This was gold and silver for Spain. Fro following gruop of 6 runners from Great Britain, Andrew Davis keep most energy and finally finished on 3rd place. There were not surprises in the team competition Great Britain won gold (6 runners in top 10) and Spain was second but due to the fact that all of them run fast and close to each other there was only 1:30 min separating those two teams. Runners from Germany had very strong last 10 km and they finished on 3rd place ahead of Poland. Overall 13 runners completed the championships sub 3H.
In total 28 women and 49 men completed 50 km. In the team competition we had 5 women and 9 men teams. All the results are provided in the files above.
Results
Women individual podium
1. CAITRIONA JENNINGS (IRL) 3:19:42
2. ALISON LAVENDER (GBR) 3:21:26
3. DOMINIKA STELMACH (POL) 3:21:50
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photo Mirsad Abdacovic, IAU Comunication Committee
Men individual podium
1. HOUSSAME EDDINE BENABBOU AZIZI (ESP) 2:49:20
2. ALBERTO PUYUELO PARDO (ESP) 2:52:39
3. ANDREW DAVIES (GBR) 2:53:09
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photo Mirsad Abdacovic, IAU Comunication Committee
Women Team Podium
1. GREAT BRITAIN and NORTHERN iRELAND 10:09:52
2. SPAIN 10:42:14
3. CROATIA 10:57:41
photo John O'Regan, IAU Comunication Committee
Men Team Podium
1. GREAT BRITAIN and NORTHERN iRELAND 8:41:04
2. SPAIN 8:42:34
3. GERMANY 8:58:41
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photo Mirsad Abdacovic, IAU Comunication Committee
Thank you Sotillo de la Adrada, Avila, Spain
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photo Mirsad Abdacovic, IAU Comunication Committee
Jacek Bedkowski
IAU Director of Communication
