It is for sure that we will see an exciting race in both the women as men’s field.
Irina Reutovich wants to win this edition after being the first lady in the past three editions of Gravigny’s 24 hour race. Edith Berces however could be the one who will destroy Irina’s dreams. Normally Edith runs such races in one equal pace from start to finish. If we have a look at today’s race we see an other tactic
{fixed}
distance after time (pace)
36.123 after 2:55’54 (12.32) Edith Berces (HUN)
36.123 after 2:57’52 (12.19) Irina Reutovitch (RUS)
36.123 after 2:59’29 (12.08) Irina Koval (RUS)
34.684 after 2:56’07 (11.82) Galina Gordeeva (RUS)
34.684 after 2:58’25 (11.66) Joelle Semur (FRA)
33.245 after 2:52’22 (11.57) Lyudimila Kalinina (FRA)
{efixed}
It seems that intimidation is the preferred tactic instead of saving energy for the second part. Finally, after 24 hours, it only counts who did best over 24 hours. All women in the top of the intermediate result list after 3 hours are running above world record level, supposed they can continue the present speed.
Same observation holds for the men’s race. Hrmo, the winner of the EC 2000 at Uden, is in the lead with a split that suggests a winning distance of more than 310 km. Probably the winner will run only 260 or 265 km, so a pace of 11 km/hour would be sufficient to start with in a European Championship race. For the moment however over 80 participants have an average speed of 11 km/hours or faster. Paul Beckers, last years champion, is 25th in the men’s race for the moment with an average speed of 12.20 km/hour.
The top of the men’s race is as follows:
{fixed}
distance after time (pace)
39.002 after 2:58’49 (13.09) Lubomir Hrmo (SVK)
39.002 after 2:58’50 (13.09) Alain Prual (FRA)
39.002 after 2:58’52 (13.08) Vincenzo Tarascio (ITA)
39.002 after 2:58’54 (13.08) Mohamed Magroun (FRA)
39.002 after 3:00’00 (13.00) Jan Bujnak (SVK)
37.563 after 2:54’43 (12.90) Jean-Pierre Guyomarc’h
{efixed}
Anton Smeets
ton.smeets@ou.nl