The first half of the race belonged to Maher Ben Hlima from Poland, who gained up to a three-quarter minute lead over his rivals, but had to go into the penalty zone at the 25th km after three red cards. He finished the race, but only in 11th place.

Massimo Stano took the reins of the race firmly in the last ten kilometres. The Italian accelerated in the second half of the race. "The first 15 km I was in the group, I followed my competitors. Our strategy was to go next 20 km as fast as possible; I was under 1:20 I guess (1:19:06 – note)," he commented after the race. In the last kilometres he was clocking just under 4 minutes and it was clear that not only his own European record (2:23:14) but also the world record of Evan Dunfee (2:21:40) was in danger. The latter hasn't even had time to be approved since the Dudince, Slovakia, meet two months ago.

Stano didn't leave anything to chance in the end and went for the gold after the bronze from the 20 km in Poděbrady European champs two years back. And the time was great, beating Dunfee's performance by 57 seconds. "My goal was to go very fast, not get a world record. Every time I was thinking about WR/ER, it did not happen. So, I arrived as much easy as possible. After Olympics I was injured, so this result is very good for me, for my team, and I am very proud of the world record today. The mission is complete."

foto: Czech Athletic Federation / Soňa Maléterová

Christopher Linke and Miguel Ángel López were in the group with Stano from the start. Before the 20km mark, the German separated himself from his Spanish rival and gradually increased his advantage to almost half a minute at the finish. Linke took the silver in 2:23:21. López, although losing ground to his rival, crossed the finish line with a safe lead of two and a half minutes over the others in 2:23:48. Both of them repeated their previous placing in 2023 Poděbrady European Team Championships. Another four walkers broke the entry standard for Tokyo World Championships.

The Italians also beat their big rivals from Spain in the team competition, with Riccardo Orsoni fourth and Matteo Giupponi ninth alongside Stan supporting the winning result. The Spaniards remained four places back totally in the overall standings, with Daniel Chamosa and Manuel Bermúdez in the top ten alongside López. The German line-up led by Link took bronze.

The home crowd was also happy. Vít Hlaváč met both his targets, beating his own national record by more than a minute and similarly the federation standard required to compete at the World Championships in Tokyo. He finished eighteenth with a time of 2:31:44. Jaromír Morávek could also enjoy a new personal best with 2:35:19 (22nd place).

Michal Procházka for ERWTCh