Exciting first races at the european championships

The skaters of the European inline Championships are now having an important rest day before the start of the road competitions. Here are the results of the past three days of intense track racing in Lagos.

By Jackob Savard
Photo courtesy of Patinagem Velocidade Portugal.

Day 1 - 300m TT and 10000m
The fastest skaters in the 300m qualification waves were Sandrine Tas from Belgium for the ladies and Simon Albrecht from Germany for the men. They were also the fastest in the finale and were crowned european champions. Tas completed her 300m in 26.382 and Albrecht was the only skater to go below twenty-four seconds with his time of 23.759. Stien Vanhoutte (Belgium) and Vanessa Herzog (Austria) completed the ladies podium. For the men’s podium, Darren De Souza (France) and Mathias Vosté (Belgium) got second and third positions.

The Lollobrigida sisters controlled a good portion of the ladies 10 000m points and elimination race. Sandrine Tas from Belgium was able to counter them and get a good amount of points but Francesca Lollobrigida still finished first. In the men’s race, the french Timothy Loubineaud surprised everyone with a fast breakaway that got him 18 points. Bart Swings attacked later but it wasn't enough to come back on Loubineaud. Swings finished with 16 points. Daniel Niero from Italia got the third place.

Senior podiums of the 10000m points / elimination races.

Day 2- 500m and 15000

The ladies 500m final started really fast and no one was able to make a pass. Vanessa Herzog from Austria was the fastest and finished before Francesca Lollobrigida to give Austria’s its first european championship title of the competition. The men’s race was a tight battle between four skaters. Simon Albrecht got Ioseba Fernandez on a close finish and the French Darren de Souza, fighting hard all race long, finished third.

Another day, another victory for Francesca Lollobrigida! She was able to win the 15000m at the finish line in front of Sandrine Tas and her own sister, Giulia. The men’s race was also an Italian domination as Stefano Mareschi and Daniel Niero got first and second place in front of Patxi Peula from Spain. Mareschi finished really strong in the last two laps and created separation between him and the other skaters.

Day 3 - 1000m and relays

The 15 000m winners from day two are also the 1000m winners as Francesca Lollobrigida and Stefano Mareschi finished first in the last individual distance of the track portion of the European Championships. In the ladies race, Vanessa Herzog and Maite Ancin Gambarte completed the podium. Bart Swings from Belgium finished in second and Patxi Peula from spain got the bronze medal.

The 3000m relays were battled hard at the end of the third day on the track. Germany beated Spain on the women’s side but it was really close at the photo-finish. The french team finished in third position. On the men’s side, the belgian team won the relay beating team Germany and  team France.

It’s over for the track competition but the road portion of the competition starts tomorrow and it will be full of fireworks. Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and our website to get all the results.