Turkey triumphs at 11. European Mountain Running Championships in Denizli-Pamukkale.
The terrain was tough and hot and the competitions were wonderful with many nations making the podium. , The hosting country of Turkey and the LOC provided excellent accommodation and many runners complimented the wonderful hospitality of Turkish people in the streets as they paraded on Friday and prepared for the event near to Denizli.
The nations of Turkey (4 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze), Switzerland (1 gold), Great Britain (2 gold and 1 silver), Russia (2 silver and 1 bronze), Czech Republic (2 bronze), Romania and Germany (one bronze each) were awarded individual ,and/or team medals while team medals were also awarded to Italy (1 gold and 1 silver), France and Bulgaria (one bronze each).
21 Nations had runners in this event." "
The men's race was held in temperatures above 30 degrees involving an assent of ancient stairs and running through small forests. , The 3 lap 12.2km event was expected to be dominated by the teams of Italy and Turkey over the 700m of mountain running.
Ahmet Arslan (TUR) again looked majestic as he controlled the race from the front to take his 6. European title ahead of his friend Ercan Muslu (TUR). In third place was Ionut Alin Zinca (ROU).
Close behind came the Italian team in positions 4 (Gabriele Abate), 5 (Marco De Gasperi) and 7 (Xavier Chevrier) which proved enough to win the team competition ahead of Turkey (19) and France (48). ,
The women's race saw a strong start from the team from the United Kingdom (GBR) as Mary Wilkinson and Emma Clayton completed the first circuit the fastest. It was the second climb where the strongest runners came through and this was Monika Furholz (SUI) who came ,first, 9 seconds ahead of Nadezhda Leshchinskaia (RUS) with Pavla Schorna Matyasova (CZE) 4 seconds behind. The winners of the team award were the United Kingdom (GBR) with 20 points as Italy just headed Russia with the same points.
The Junior Mens race saw another dominant display by Turkey with Individual Gold and Silver going to Ahmet Ozrek (TUR) and Mazlum Aydemir (TUR) who was 8 seconds behind. Anton Palzer (GER) took bronze medal.
Team awards saw Turkey again take the Gold medal with 9 points ahead of Russia (29 points) and the Czech republic with 30 points.
The Junior womens race saw a dominant winning display from Annabel Mason (GBR) who was proudly watched by her coach and father John Mason. Eytemis (TUR) was second with Cesminaz Yilmaz (TUR) winning the bronze medal. The team event saw 5 points for both GBR and TUR with Turkey taking the title as the last runner was in position 3 ahead of the GBR runner Melanie Hyder in 4. position. , Bulgaria took the bronze team medals.
Next 12. European Mountain Running Championships 2013 will be held on 6. July at Borovets, Bulgaria: at the end of the proze ceremony Memhet Terzi, Presidente of Turkish Athletics Federation, trought Christian Milz, EA General Director, passed the flag to Dobromir Karamarinov, Bulgarian Athletis Federation.
Results and photographs available on LOC website
News by Bashir Hussain
- Arslan at the finish,