The sun was back at the European Masters Athletics Championships in the province of Venice, Italy, and lightened up some good performances in Day 3 of competition. Men’s 1500m finals thrilled the spectators in Jesolo with inspiring races, as the crowd cheered a new M85 European record by Italian Bruno Baggia clocking 7:06.03, three seconds better than the old mark that Holger Josefsson of Sweden achieved in 2004.
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A superb finish in M70 age group crowned France’s Denis Macagno in 5:26.87 followed by Hans Smeets from Netherlands, who in vain tried to catch him, while an Irish M65 double was led by Joe Gough who beat Brian Lynch. Jesolo track hosted also the hurdles final, with another great head-to-head between Albert Soba of Slovenia, gold medallist in 45.46 at M60 300hs, and Germany’s Heiner Lueers. As for the women, Italian Maria Costanza Moroni took first place in W50 300hs with a time of 47.42.
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In Caorle fell the second European record of the day. Petra Herrmann from Germany did five attempts in W60, all over the previous best performance, now increased to 10.31 (+0.7). There was instead a clean sweep in Eraclea for German women in W65 1500m with Gerlinde Kolesa as a clear winner in 5:53.30. In the youngest age group, the W35 final was dominated by Anna Rostkowska of Poland, a former European U23 champion.
Luca Cassai – photos by Alfred Hermes
Results: http://www.fidal.it/risultati/2019/COD7632/Index.htm