1000m Sprint – you love it or you hate it! Fast time or tactical race, often difficult to predict and also the discipline where sprinters and long distance skaters meet.
The youth men opened the finals with a second gold medal for Giorgo Ghisio Erba. Teammate Francesco Onesti took the second place before the French skater Axel Le Tyrant.
Belgian skater Vik Reynaerts qualified for the final by winning his semifinal, and landed on the 7th place in a tactical and fast final.
Also fast races for the youth ladies. Louise Malu and Amélie Ignoul were defending the Belgian honour and skated to 12th and 13th place respectively. In the final with no less than 6 nationalities, the winner of the 200m also took the victory in the 1000m, Sofia Paola Chiumiento from Italy. She’s proving time after time to be one of Italy’s young diamonds! Alessia Pitatore, also from Italy, won the silver medal and bronze went to Luna-Marie Lau from Denmark. Bronze with a golden rim, after her crash in the elimination races on day 1.
Party time for France with positions 1 & 2 – Arthur Lebeaupin before Noé Guyomarc, Leonardo Bossi took the bronze medal back to Italy. Sietse Troost was running in the slowest heat and missed the final, he ended on a 15th place.
The junior ladies race was the start of a crazy 30 minutes for the organizing club as three local athletes skated themselves on the podium on their home track!
Lyssa Vansteenkiste claimed her first European title after a strong sprint in which she first caught back the breakaway of Amber van der Meijden and stayed in front of Jessica Rodrigues (Portugal) and Violette Braun, representing France.
Indra Médard continued the success story for the local club with silver in the senior men category. Hugo Morin crowned himself as the winner, Jason Suttels won the bronze medal. A race with quite some tension and tactical moves, topped off with a close sprint of a compact group.
Robbe Beelen, the third Belgian participant was 25th.
Fran Vanhoutte completed the crazy 30 minutes with a impressive sprint that led her to gold, beating French skaters Marie Dupuy and Manon Fraboulet. Jorun Geerts – as first year senior – can be proud of her 4th place, well done!
Team work makes the dream work – very true for the relay races on Sunday. Anything can happen in a final is a cliché but also a true one for the relays.
In the Youth ladies relay, Hungary was the proud winner of the bronze – their first medal since the European Championships in 2018 – also in Oostende! Czech Republic ended on silver, gold went to Italy after a strong and powerful sprint from – who else – Sofia Paola Chiumiento!
In the next races, Portugal took a subscription on the third place, interesting battles between Italy and France which is also reflected in the medal tally!
Youth men – the strong Italian team took the win before France and Portugal on 3. Belgium finished on the 8th place.
Junior ladies – Portugal 3rd, Belgium on the 4th place. France took the win here, before Italy
Junior men – Again France on top here, after a very dominant race before Czech republic, and on third place…. Portugal!
Senior ladies – Despite a crash of Fran Vanhoutte in the series, team Belgium qualified for the finals. After the disqualification for Spain and The Netherlands, the road led to bronze for team Belgium, behind Germany (silver) and the strong French team took the gold
Disappointment for team Belgium in the relay heats, after a rare and unfortunate crash of Bart Swings, the team could not qualify for the finals. Exciting final, unfortunately with two crashes (team Portugal & Germany). Also here France controlled the race, but eventually the victory was for team Italy before Spain (silver) and France (bronze).