The Portuguese Ana Cabecinha (CO Pechão) won the bronze medal on Sunday in the 20 kilometer run at the European Team Championships, held in Poderbrady, Czech Republic.
The walker finished the race in 1:29.35 hours, losing by 18 seconds to the Greek Antigoni Ntrispioti, champion in 1:29.17, and by 16 seconds to the Italian Antonella Palmisano, silver in 1:29.19.
Ana Cabecinha, 39 years old, achieved her best record of the year, in a race in which she was always in the leading group and managed to hold on to last place on the podium in the final part, 23 seconds ahead of Ukrainian Lyudmila Olyanovska .
The CO Pechão walker, who was 15 seconds away from qualifying directly for the World Championships in Budapest, has been the national record holder for the distance since she ran 1:27.46 at the Beijing Olympics on August 21, 2008.
“I didn’t expect to finish with this result, to be on the podium, but I thoroughly enjoyed the race. This is my last participation in this European Cup.” [Campeonato Europeu de Seleções] and I’m very happy to finish like this, with third place,” said the Portuguese, who hopes to “get to Paris 2024”.
As for the rest of Portugal, Vitória Oliveira finished in 19th place (1:34.41), Carolina Costa in 24th place (1:35.59, best mark of the year) and Inês Mendes in first place (1:37.49).
Collectively, Italy triumphed with 21 points, ahead of Ukraine (25) and France (37). Spain finished fourth (40) and Portugal finished fifth (46), with the same number of points as Greece, which closed the ranking after the Portuguese.
Source: DN
