Huge sensation and shock at the beginning of the European Championship - Olympic winner and world champion Matej TÓTH defeated by Ukrainian ZAKALNYTSKYYM !!!!, Belarusian DZIUBIN won for bronze. Lukáš GDULA in 21st place in 4: 05: 44 Congratulations !!!

In the women's race, on the other hand, the Portuguese Inês HENRIQUES confirmed her role as the favorite and won the premier title of European Champion in the women's 50km walk !!!

The weather forecast "unfortunately" was 150% this time. 35 ° C in the shade, clear sky. For swimming and beer - great, cool. For a race at such the highest level in Europe, there can be = !!! A STRONG SHIFT FOR EVERYONE !!! That's why everyone who managed to finish this incredibly difficult fifty in such a furnace G CONGRATULATIONS !!! 

Congratulations, of course, to Lukáš Gdul, who showed the heart of a great fighter with a time of 4:05:44 and 21st place in Europe, and although he experienced two major crises in the race (at 28 to 30 km and then between 36 and 38 km) he overcame is and 100% met expectations! The race broke up for less than 4 hours, which is the boundary of the elite 34-year-old society, for the time being it held for about XNUMX km, after which the loss of strength on the increasingly hot road in the center of Berlin.

In the men's race (about Lukáš Gdul - see a separate paragraph above), as the title of the article clearly states, the favorite of all favorites from the European Champion Title did not rejoice. At the beginning of the race, it didn't indicate much, because after Matej Tóth got rid of the group of pursuers at the 20th km, led by the Italian Marco de Luca, it seemed that he would quite well play the role of the favorite ...... For a time now, the pair of Ukrainian Zakalnytsky, Belarus Dziubin, have added a lot and started walking 2km circuits around 8:50min and better !!! and Toth could barely hold 9:00 min on one circuit (it is hard to say, but ladies and gentlemen !!! that is the pace at 1 km in 4:30 min ..... 35 ° C in the shade ....... try it "just" run for a few kilometers and you go for an urgent reception to Motol ........). It was fast, very fast, literally furious about these conditions, and the Ukrainian managed to do it, he got ahead of Tóth at the 32nd km, the Belarusian managed to do the same at the 40th km, and Nor Haukenes got into it all before Tóth. And suddenly Tóth was even without any medals at that moment !!! So a real drama at the end was set. No one threatened the Ukrainians anymore, and he sensationally won the title of European Champion at 3:46:32, Matej Tóth recovered and won a silver medal at the end of 3:47:27, so another valuable metal will be added to his collection. , Belarus Dziubin did not maintain his lead over Toth in the last round, so he takes the bronze medal in the personal record in 3: 47: 59 hours, which is not left for Haukenese, who finished in 4th place in 3: 48: 35 hours. Then the first of the domestic competitors Carl Dohmann finished in 5th place in his SB time 3: 50: 27h, another of the domestic fighters Nathaniel Seiler finished in 8th place in the personal record 3:54:08. It is a great success for the host country and also for Poland on this track (Rafal Augustyn 6th place, Rafal Sikora 7th place). And the main thing, of course, is the expecting Germans at Saturday's "twenty" in men (Linke) ..... 

At the premiere of the women's 50km walk at the European Championships, Portuguese Ines Henriques, on the other hand, confirmed her role as the favorite and won in a great time 4: 09: 21h. and for the bronze another of the Spanish favorites Julia Takács 4: 12h. More Ukrainians! on the fourth! place Yudkina 44: 4.15: 22h and fifth! place Vitovshchyk 4:20:46 did not add a medal for Ukraine, but still confirmed the clear dominance of Ukraine on a 4km walk !!! We should start doing something about it with us, otherwise Europe and the world in women will miss us ............  

Unfortunately, these exciting races in a great Berlin location were not very well presented on German radio and television. Big ARD error! Too bad, too bad!

Results with splits 50km walk men     Results with split 50km walk women

I decided to march for the 48km: