Twell and Crippa take European 10,000m Cup titles
Britain’s Steph Twell overhauled European champion Lonah Chemtai Salpeter to win the European 10,000m Cup in London on Saturday while Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa timed his finish well to win the men’s race.
The European 10,000m Cup is an annual 10,000 metres race for European athletes which was first held in 1997. The competition is organised by the European Athletics Association and first began as the European 10000 Metres Challenge (European 10,000m Challenge till 2005 edition), after the event was removed from the European Cup programme.
The competition has roots in the Iberian 10,000 metres Championships – a competition between Spanish and Portuguese athletes that was held between 1991 and 1996 – and the first five editions of the European 10000 Metres Challenge were held in the Iberian Peninsula. The event was first held under its current title in 2005. From 2018, the event has been held as the climax of the Night of 10k PB's event at Parliament Hill, London.
Held as part of the Night of the 10,000m PBs event at the Parliament Hill
track, hundreds of spectators flocked
In the women’s race, defending champion Salpeter set off at a fast past and had soon built up a significant lead, passing through 3000m in 9:18, some seven seconds ahead of a chase pack that included Twell, Eilish McColgan, Liv Westphal of France and Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack.
Salpeter maintained that advantage through half way, reached in 15:37.26, while McCormack and Westphal started to drift off the pack of the chase pack. Cheered on by the home supporters, Twell and McColgan gradually began to eat away at Salpeter’s advantage and closed in on the Israeli distance runner with each passing lap.
McColgan was unable to stick with Twell, the 2016 European 5000m bronze
medallist, who caught up with Salpeter with four laps remaining. She stayed on
the shoulder
Salpeter had no response to Twell
All three women were comfortably inside the qualifying standards for the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
In the men’s race, paced by Dawit Wolde, Crippa was always prominent in the
lead pack. The pace slipped outside the required schedule for the World
Championships qualifying mark as the leaders went through
Once the pacemakers had dropped out, Belgium’s Soufiane Bouchikhi took a turn at the front with Crippa, Norway’s Sondre Nordstad Moen, Germany’s Amanal Petros and Britain’s Ben Connor close behind.
Crippa soon returned to the front, though, and upped the pace going into the final kilometre. Petros was the only athlete to stick with Crippa and the German even moved into the lead on the final lap, but Crippa stuck close to him and kicked ahead in the closing stages to take the win in 27:49.79. Petros finished second in a PB of 27:52.25 with Connor taking third in 27:57.60, also a PB.