The first day of the European Champions Club Cup in Castellon, Spain on Saturday (23) saw championship records from Emmanuel Eseme and Berke Akcam, as the battle for the top spots are tight ahead of day two.
After day one, Sporting Clube de Lisbon lead the men’s competition with 88 points, ahead of Castellon in second with 84 points and Enka in third with 83 points. In the women's competition, a blunder in the 4x100m meant that Sporting were bumped into second with 114 points as Valencia took the lead with 123 points with Enka holding third with 101.5 points.
Cá launches event in style
The first event of the weekend to get underway was the women’s discus with Sporting Clube De Portugal’s Liliana Ca, a European bronze medallist, the big favourite for gold.
She wasted no time in showing why she was the favourite, throwing 56.15m in the first round, a distance that proved to be enough to take the win in Castellon.
But Cá, in the third round, improved to a one centimetre season’s best of 61.89m to solidify her dominance over the rest of the field.
The reigning long jump world indoor champion, Gerson Balde, took a second early win for Sporting as he jumped for the first time in the outdoor season.
However he struggled to find his top form, with his first round jump of 8.01m his best of the series as he also registered four no jumps.
It was then a tough battle between Playas de Castellon’s Joan Gea and Enka Sports Club’s Necati Er for second and third, with just two centimetres separating the two athletes.
After two no jumps in the opening rounds Er, the former European U23 champion, carried the pressure into the third round where he jumped 7.55m to secure three more jumps.
However he was unable to measure another distance, allowing the home athlete, Gea, to take the second place with a last round jump of 7.57m.
Sporting sprint success
Sporting also saw double success in the 100m, taking the win in both the men’s and women’s event while Emmanuel Eseme also shattered the championship record of 10.12, running 10.01.
Eseme, the reigning African champion, ran a season’s best to take the win ahead of Enka’s Ertan Ozkan who ran 10.40 for second, and VSK Univerzita Brno’s Eduard Kubelik in third with 10.55.
While in the women’s race Tatjana Pinto, a former European relay champion, took first in 11.21 for her first 100m of the season.
She took the win ahead of Brescia’s Gloria Hooper in second with 11.26 and Valencia’s Elena Guiu in third with 11.43, while the whole field in the A final ran a season’s best.
Meanwhile, in the women’s pole vault Monica Clemente took the win with 4.30m for Diputacion Valencia Club Atletismo on her second attempt at the height.
In second was Naiara Perez of Castellon with 4.25m, followed by Apolena Svabikova in third with 4.20m for Univerzitni sportovni klub Praha.
While in the women’s 400m hurdles Carla Garcia, also representing Valencia, took the win with a season’s best of 57.01.
She narrowly took the win ahead of Jyvaskylan Kenttaurheilijat’s Heidi Salminen who ran 57.19, with Nina Franke of Vughste in third with 57.45.
Then in the men’s 400m hurdles the former world and European U20 champion, Berke Akcam took the win in his season opener with 50.27 to also clock a championship record.
He was quickly followed by Sporting’s Diogo Barrigana in 50.33, with Harrow Athletics Club’s Hayden Christian crossing for third in 51.86.
Valencia saw another win on the first day, with Yulenmis Aguilar taking the win in the women’s javelin with a season’s best of 57.56m.
In second place was Harrow’s Freya Jones with 54.62m, while Atletski klub Crvena Zvezda’s Ivana Duric took third with 54.10m.
That was soon followed by another Valencian win by Daily Marlins Cooper in the women’s 800m in 1:59.82, with Sporting’s Patricia Silva second across the line in 2:01.16.
It was Sporting that were back on top in the men’s shot put as Tsanko Arnaudov took the win with 17.95m, with Enka’s Bathuhan Ozdemir in second after throwing 17.51m, and AO TJ Slavia STU Bratislava’s Adrian Baran in third with 17.35m.
Then in the men’s 1500m it was Mehmet Celik, of Enka, that took the 3:51.05 win with a narrow lead over Sporting’s Nuni Pereira in second with 3:51.22.
But the women’s 3000m saw Sporting back on top with Tirhas Gebrehiwet taking a strong 9:22.20 win with a PB.
The two Spanish clubs came in for second and third with Valencia’s Carla Masip clocking a PB of 9:25.54 for second and Castellon’s Claudia Corral in 9:29.34 for third.
Back on the field, Castellon took their first win of the day with David Gonzalez’s victory in the high jump when he cleared 2.09m on his first attempt.
It was Vojtech Zajicek for who took second, also clearing 2.09m but on his second attempt at the height.
Whjle Enterprise Sport and Service’s Federico Bovo and Ivan Pajkic of OAK Beograd took joint third after both clearing 2.05m with identical cards.
Enka saw their second win of the day with Tugba Danismaz’s women’s triple jump victory after a first round jump of 14.03m.
Sporting’s Evelise Veiga took second with a season’s best of 13.26m while Castellon’s Naida Calonge took third with 13.15m.
Another double win came in the 400m for Sporting, as Sofia Lavreshina ran a 51.35 PB and Omar Elkayjon clocked a 45.56 season’s best.
Kokhan hammers home victory
Their success continued in the men’s hammer as Olympic and European bronze medallist Mykhaylo Kokhan took the win with his best throw of 75.70m coming in the last round.
David De La Fuente took another with for Castellon, with a dominant run of 14:53.85 in the men’s 5000m.
It was then Sporting’s Ruben Amaral in second with 14:58.80 and Enka’s Omer Amactan in third with 14:59.81.
Sila Bayir, for Enka, was the only woman to go sub 10-minutes in the 3000m steeplechase with a season’s best of 9:56.09 for full points.
There was drama in the women’s 4x100m relay as Sporting and Vughste were disqualified, a devastating result for the Portuguese club who had crossed the finish line first.
As a result, Valencia took the win with 44.46, Atletica Brescia were second in 44.50, followed by Enka in 45.36.
While in the men’s 4x100m, Sporting managed to successfully get the baton round without any issues to clock a very impressive 39.35 ahead of Enka in second with 40.02, and Castellon in third with 40.49.