Triumph for Italy at the 13. European Mountain Running Champiosnhips at Gap (France).
14/07/2014
“216 runners coming from 26 European Countries were present at the 13. European Mountain Running Championships.
Italy dominated medal table of the competition winning 4 gold medals and one bronze, other four Nations had the honour of listening their national anthem: Great Britain won 1 gold medal and 4 silver medals, Turkey took 1 gold medal and 2 silver and 3 bronze (total six medals: no other Country won this number of medals), Czech Republic had 1 gold and silver and Austria won 1 gold and 2 bronze medals.
Two other Nations won medals: Slovenia won 1 silver medal and hosting Country France took 2 bronze.
All the four races were very exciting, with a lot champions of the discipline that tried to do their best! “
“In the senior men, Italian Bernard Dematteis won in 56:10 – with his 28-year-old twin Martin third in 56:32 – and the pair were separated by Great Britain&rsquo,s Robbie Simpson who took silver in 56:19.
A year ago in Borovets when Bernard won the crown for the first time (he defeated Turkish star Ahmet Arslan who had triumphed on six occasions) and in 2014 he confirmed his title.
Now the Italian is creating a legendary status of his own after making it two in a row as he showed his power and strength in a race where Arslan was eighth in 58:22.
In the team senior men result Italy team (Bernard Dematteis, Martin Dematteis, Luca Cagnati and Alex Baldaccini) took gold medal with 11 points in front of Great Britain &, N. I. (Robbie Simpson, Andrew Douglas, Tom Addison and Shaun Dixon, also if he did not finished the race) silver with 27 points and France (Julien Rancon Renaud Jaillardon, Benjamin Bellany and Emmanuel Meyssat, also if he did not finished the race) bronze with 31 points. 15 Nations started with full team but only 14 teams was in the results because one of the Spanish runner did not finished the race and so the team became not complete.
The women&rsquo,s senior race looked like it would not be dominated by one person such was the quality throughout, but that was not the case as Austrian Andrea Mayr also won for the second year in a row.
Among those in the field were Alice Gaggi, of Italy, who won the world crown last year, but Mayr stayed in front at the end of each of the two laps before moving away to take gold.
After an interesting race Mayr won in 39:43 beating Slovenian Mateja Kosovelj (silver) in 40:53 and Austrian Sabine Reiner (bronze) in , 41:03 whilst Italian Alice Gaggi finished fourth in 41:22.
In the team senior women result Italy team (Alice Gaggi, Elisa Desco, Valentina Belotti and Elisa Sortini) won European title with 20 points. Silver medal was taken by Great Britain &, N. I. (Emma Clayton, Sarah Tunstall, Katie Walshaw and Megan Crawford) with 31 point and Austria (Andrea Mayr, Sabine Reiner and Karin Freitag) won bronze medal with 36 points. 17 teams finished in the results.
The day had begun with the junior women&rsquo,s race which brought victory for Britain&rsquo,s Georgia Malir in 22:10 as she fended off the Turkey’s bid, with Bahar Atalay second in 22:20 and Burcu Subatan third in 22:42.
Turkey team won gold medal with 14 points, second and silver was Great Britain &, N. I. with 29 points whilst France and Czech Rep. took both 37 points but bronze was for France team, because third French counting runner finished 15. , (Czech runner was 18.). 9 teams were in the team result.
And it was a similar outcome in the junior men for Turkey who took second and third as Dominik Sadlo, of the Czech Republic, won gold in 37:23. He was followed by Ferhat Bozkurt, in 37:42, with Ramazan Karagoz third in 38:19. , Italy team won gold medal with 20 points, second and silver was Czech Rep. with 24 points and bronze and third , finished Turkey with 26 points.
All the participants declared their satisfaction for the organisation of the event.
Local Organising Committee and town of Gap was very happy for hosting this event and FFA was present with a lot of Officials (Jean Gracia and some Vice Presidents). Also European Athletics Association was present with many people and with Dobromir Karamarinov, Chairman of EAA Mountain Running Commission. , ,
At the end of competition EAA flag passed in the hands of LOC of next 14. European Mountain Running Championships 2015 in Portugal, at Porto Moniz, on Saturday 4. , July.
 ,
Edited from Bruno Gozzelino(WMRA)
 ,Source of the pictures:
 ,On front page (from EAA):
 , – Bernard Dematties, winner senior men,
 ,On second page: (from EAA):
– Andrea Mayr. winner senior women.
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