Libor Charfreitag in Uberlandia (© Bruno Miani/CBAt)
Lisbon, PortugalRussia made a hat trick of European Champion Clubs Cup doubles over the weekend in Vila Real de Santo Antonio, Portugal, winning both the men and women's Group A competitions for third time since 2006.
The women of Finpromko-UPI dominated from the start, finishing with 134 points ahead of Spain's Champion Valencia Terra y Mar (110) and Panellinios of Athens (95.5), while the men of Luch Moscow achieved a final score of 115 which placed them ahead of Dukla Praha from Czech Republic (106) and Spartak Dubnica of Slovakia (102), while home team Sporting Clube de Portugal finished in fifth despite a promising first day of competition with the first place side by side with the Russians.
Individually the meeting made some outstanding performances, specially the Slovak World Hammer Throw bronze medallist Libor Charfreitag who achieved a new meeting record of 80.45m, the second farthest throw of 2008.
Other notable results achieved included European High Jump medallist Tomas Janku’s (CZE) 2.26m clearance, while double European sprint champion Francis Obikwelu win the 100m in 10.35 (against -2.4 wind) on the first day and the 200m under lots of rain in 21.19 on the second day, while also helped his team to victory in 4x100m Relay (39.47). The Slovak Dubnica team took three events, with Peter Znava taking the 400m in 46.58, and guest Kenyans Bernard Kiptum (1500m, 3:49.22) and Collins Kosgei (5000 m, 13:53.23) turning in victories as well. In the Long Jump Gaspar Araújo (7.93m +3.0) was the winner as was the Czech Champion for Dukla Praha in the form of Shot Putter Petr Stehlik (19.14m).
Russian girl power
In the women’s event, the Russian women took 10 of the 20 events of the program.
The best result came in the women’s 3000m – contested in warm (20 degrees) and windy conditions - by World 3000m Steeplechase record holder Gulnara Samitova-Galkina who clocked 8:42.96, ahead of the Spaniard Dolores Checa (personal best - 8:43.00), and Osaka 5,000m medallist Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya who finished in 8:54.00 for Panellinios (GRE).
Olympic, World and European jumps champion Tatyana Lebedeva opened her season with a 6.69m (+3.4) Long Jump that beat Slovak Jana Veldakova (6.68m, +2.2) by only 1cm. Yulia Guschina clocked 23.04 over 200m, and former World and European 1500m champion Tatyana Tomashova won her specialty in 4:13.70. Oksana Udmurtova win the Triple Jump (14.05m w: +0,1), World finalist Yelena Zadorozhnaya won the 3000m Steeplechase (9:50.47) and Anastasia Shvedova cleared 4.30m to win the Pole Vault.
Other female top marks included the 55.05 400m Hurdles result from Tiffany Ross-Williams (USA, competing on behalf of Panelionios), in a surprise win over Russia's reigning European Champion Yevgeniya Isakova (55.84), while Turkey's World 10,000m silver medallist Elvan Abeylegesse was the clear winner of the 5000m, reaching the in 15:52.34. Bulgarian Tsvetelina Kirilova (running for Turkey) took a surprise victory in the 400m, beating Russia's reigning European 4x400m relay Champion Svetlana Pospelova (52.20-52.38).
From the Valencia team, Spanish hurdles specialist Josephine Onyia won the 100m sprint in 11.70 (-0.5) along with the 100m Hurdles in 12.97 against a -2.3 wind.
On the final score, CA Montreuil (FRA) and Enka Spor Kulubu (TUR) both face relegation to the men's B-Group, while in the women's teams, it is Slovakian club Spartak Dubnica (who finished only one point behind USK Praha) and again the French team CA Montreuil who will be competing in the B-Group next year.
B-Group with good results too
In the B Group, the Portuguese girls take 14 of the 20 individual titles, with Latvian Jelena Prokopkuca winning the 3000m (9:49.82) and the 5000m (16:04.77), Naide Gomes making 6.88m (w: +2,3) in the Long Jump, and Silvia Cruz in the Javelin Throw with 59.57m. In the Discus Throw, Viktoira Boyko of Maccabi, reached 54.92m, ahead of Netherlands’ Monique Jansen (54.59).
In the men’s events, Briton Andrew Turner took the 200m with 21.18 and the 110m Hurdles with 13.72 against the wind (-3,6). Israeli Alexander Averbuch won the Pole Vault with a 5.45m leap and his teammate Mate Gabor took the Discus Throw honours with a 61.84m toss. Morten Jensen (Sparta Copenhagen – DEN) won the Long Jump with an 8.02m leap (w: +2,2), and Dragan Peric (SRB – Crvena Beograd) took the Shot Put with an 18.62m effort.
Achieving promotion fro the B-Group were Britain’s City of Manchester AC (winner with 126,5 points) and the Israeli Maccabi Tel-Aviv (second with 117 points) in the men’s competition, and the Portuguese Sporting Clube de Portugal (91 points) and the Israelis Maccabi Reshon-Lézion (57) doing the same on the women’s side.
Antonio Manuel Fernandes for the IAAF
