Host club Playas de Castellon won the men’s European Champions Clubs Cup Group A by just a single point from Fenerbahce Sport Club to regain a trophy they last won in 2015.
Castellon may have only won four events overall to their Turkish rivals’ nine but their consistent high placings kept them in the contest throughout the two days of competition and finishing third in the final event, the 4x400m, with Fenerbahce winning was enough to secure the title as Europe’s top men’s team again after a four-year hiatus.
Fenerbahce made a good start on Saturday as Ozkan Baltaci won the hammer, the first event of the day, with 73.35m. The first men’s track event had the same outcome, as Türkiye banked another eight points in the 400m hurdles as Aron Koech won in 51.51, followed by world and European 200m champion Ramil Guliyev taking advantage of the 2.0 m/s wind to soar away and win the 100m in an impressive 10.16, with Brno’s Dominik Zalesky second in 10.29.
Ferguson Cheruiyot shortly afterwards secured Fenerbahce’s fourth win out of the first five events with victory in a tactical 1500m in 3:45.05 from Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski, the recently-crowned European Indoor champion competing for Sport Lisbon e Benfica.
Nevertheless, Castellon had their moments on the first day as Pablo Torrijos took the triple jump with 16.80m before Masilo Boitumelo won the 400m in 46.45.
Benfica’s big moment came when Francisco Belo won the shot put with 19.73m, and had a backup effort of 19.57m, both more than a metre better than anyone else.
At the end of the first day, after 11 of the 21 events, Castellon led by five points with 61 from Fenerbahce on 56 and Benfica a close third with 55.
¡¡CAMPEONES de EUROPA!!
— CA Playas Castellón (@atletismoplayas) May 26, 2019
Victoria del equipo masculino en la Copa de Europa de Clubes celebrada este fin de semana en Castellón #AtletismoPlayas ✅ #CSEscenarioDeportivo pic.twitter.com/odkfMgmqLG
The Spaniards quickly extended their lead in Sunday’s opening event as Lois Maikel Martinez sent all four of his efforts over 60 metres in the discus with his last two throws both reaching 61.56m.
The gap between the top two increased further as Spanish international Yidiel Islay Contreras won the 110m hurdles in 13.81 before closing as the 800m turned out to be a repeat of the 1500m the day before as once more Cheruiyot (1:47.88) had the better of Lewandowski (1:48.56).
It was going to take something spectacular for the winner of the 200m not to be Fenerbahce’s World and European champion Guliyev who duly triumphed in a Cup record of 20.32, taking 0.05 off the mark set by Francis Obikwelu 18 years ago.
Another Fenerbahce victory came via 2016 European cross country champion Aras Kaya, who was a comfortable 3000m steeplechase winner in 8:45.25. His teammate Ersu Sasma took maximum points too as he broke the Turkish U23 pole vault record to win in 5.40m.
As the second day came to a close, the situation at the top of the tablr became very tight. Maximum points in the long jump went to Benfica’s Marcos Chuva whose opening leap of 7.75m was too good for the rest, but with Castellon’s Daniel Solis got second place with 7.70m, which proved to be vital.
With a three-point deficit over the Spaniards going into the last event, Fenerbahce did all they could in the 4x400m as Akin Ozyurek, Cheruiyot – achieving a hat-trick of wins – Ilyas Canakci and Aron Koech won in 3:06.98.
Benfica were second in 3:07.27 to make the podium for the third consecutive year after finishing second in 2018 but Castellon’s distance third in 3:10.18 was enough for them to triumph on this occasion.
CAMPEONES DE EUROPA pic.twitter.com/687KU9GD7k
— CA Playas Castellón (@atletismoplayas) May 26, 2019
Match result
1. Playas de Castellon 122
2. Fenerbahce Sport Club 121
3. Sport Lisboa e Benfica 112
4. Cosma 98
5. Birchfield Harriers 83
6. VSK Univerzita Brno 71
7. Rotterdam Atletiek 66
8. Sparta AM 44