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December 2009
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Dominguez makes home crowd happy with Spanish double in Senior women's |
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09.12.2007 |
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European 5,000m Champion Marta Dominguez is the home
crowd hero winning the individual women's title in 28:58.
Photo by Andy Heading |
Spain's reigning European 5,000m Champion Marta Dominguez gave the home crowd what they had been waiting for with a victory at the 2007 SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Toro.
Dominguez was a reluctant participant in the Championships, and readily admits that Cross Country running is perhaps the long distance discipline that she likes the least, but she clearly enjoyed the experience of demonstrating her talent in front of an appreciative home crowd as well as many family and friends who had travelled the short distance of 120km from her home town of Palencia.
She also showed that the agony of the summer when she missed the entire track season owing to tendon problems in her ankles is well behind her after she produced an unbeatable sprint 500m from home in the 8,200m race to become the first Spanish woman to take Europe's top Cross Country prize.
"I think I ran well tactically, I planned to run behind other athletes to avoid getting battered by the wind. I think some of the favourites suffered because of that and it had a negative effect on them," said Dominguez.
The early pace was pushed by Russia's Mariya Konovalova, the 2006 silver medallist who stands head and shoulders above the relatively diminutive Dominguez, and at 4km the leading pack had been reduced to 11 women.
One lap of 1,500m later, the leading group had dwindled to seven and consisted of Dominguez, her fellow Spaniard Rosa Morato, Britain's Katie Reed, Hungary's Aniko Kalovics, Ireland's Fionnuala Britton and France's Julie Coulaud, with most of the work being done by marathon runner Kalovics who was well aware she did not have the finishing speed of most of her rivals.
Reed and Britton were dropped during the next kilometre as Kalovics continued to try to shake off her opponents but in the end Dominguez proved too strong for her and the rest of the women.
Coulaud briefly chased Dominguez when she changed gear but could not stay with her for more than a few metres and settled for taking the silver medal ahead of her fellow Steeplechase Morato.
Dominguez crossed the line after the longest Senior women's race in the history of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in 28:58, saluting the crowd 150m from home in celebration of her triumph on home soil.
Coulaud finished three seconds behind Dominguez with Morato another three seconds further back.
"I'm really happy with this result after only finishing fifth last year. I did my best to catch Marta but at the end of the race I was too tired. I did the best I could but Marta‘s the best" commented Coulaud paying tribute to the new champion.
Konovalova passed Kalovics to finish fourth in 27:09 with the brave but luckless Kalovics slipping back to fifth.
Kalovics has now finished fourth twice and fifth twice in the last six Championships, as well as claiming a bronze medal in 2003.
Dominguez and Morato's individual medals helped Spain take the women's teams team title for the first time with 33 points with Great Britain taking the silver medals for the fourth year in succession with 47 points.
Last year's champions Portugal had to settle for the bronze medals on this occasion with their scorers including the evergreen 38-year-old 1996 Olympic 10,000m champion Fernanda Ribeiro who finished in 19th place.
Ribeiro, competing in her sixth Championships, was the only woman in the 47-strong field who had also competed in the inaugeral SPAR European Cross Country Championships in 1994.
Click here for results
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