Peula, de Souza, Quintana & Pedronno at the top of the first European cup of 2019

The first European cup of the season held last weekend in Gijon ended with four winners in the senior category.

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Luis Velasco Hevia - http://luisvelasco.es

The XVI Trofeo Internacional Villa de Gijón was held last weekend in Spain. The distances that were raced were the 200m, 5000m points race, 500m, 10 000m elimination race, 1000m and 10 000m points/elimination race.

Peula and de Souza tied for the win

The men’s competition ended with Spain's Patxi Peula and Frenchman Elton de Souza tied in first place of the overall ranking. After six distances, both skaters had collected 160 points. Peula won the 500m, 1000m and 10000m points/elimination and was on the podium of two other races while de Souza was victorious in the 10000m elimination and collected four other podiums. Portuguese skater Antonio Edgar Freitas had a good weekend and completed the overall ranking podium. David Morell also impressed during the weekend winning the 5000m points race and stepping on the podium of both 10000m races. Another honorable mention goes to Spain’s Jonathan Galar who won the 200m on the first day of racing.

Quintana and Pedronno stood out in the ladie’s competition

Just like in the men’s competition, two skaters were tied at the top of the overall ranking at the end of the competition on the women's side. France’s Mathilde Pedronno and Colombia’s Aura Quintana both ended the competition with 84 points. Pedronno won the 200m, 500m and the 10000m points/elimination while Quintana won the three other distances which were the 5000m points race, 1000m and 10000m elimination race. Completing the overall podium was Spanish skater Teresa Moreno. Haila Brunet, Chloé Moulis and Leire Chocarro Asensio were the other ladies who collected at least one podium on a distance.

The next European cup will be held in Lagos from the 5th to the 7th of April.

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