BERLIN, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Maryan Zakalnytskyy and Ines Henriques have won the 50 km race walk at the inaugural multi-sport European Championships in Berlin on Tuesday.
Zakalnytskyy won the men's competition after crossing the finish line 3:46.32, while Henriques clocked 4:09.21 to win the women's race walk in Berlin City centre.
Due to high temperatures on the course, the race walkers started at a rather restrained pace. After about 30 kilometres into the race, the Ukrainian Zakalnytskyy piled on the pace to shake off his pursuers.
The 23-year-old defended his lead until the end and celebrated his biggest success of his career and the first gold medal of the title fights in Berlin.
Slovakia's Matej Toth (3:47.27) took the silver followed by Belarus' Dzmitry Dziubin (3:47.59), who finished on 3rd place with a personal best.
"This silver and all these emotions are worth all the gold in the world. I know that people were expecting first place from me and even I believed in gold, but I am second and I am glad. I do not regret anything," the 2016 Olympic champion Toth said.
Henriques dominated the parallel women's race and clinched the gold medal following a wire-to-wire victory.
The Portuguese established a five-minute lead but as the race progressed the pursuers stepped up and closed the gap to two and a half minutes.
Ukraine's Alina Tsviliy (4:12.44) came in 2nd place. Spain's Julia Takacs (4:15.22) finished in the 3rd place.
The first edition of the European Championships features seven sports including aquatics events, rowing, gymnastics, cycling, triathlon and golf in Glasgow and athletics in Berlin. The competition will have more than 4,500 athletes competing for 187 gold medals and runs until August 12. Enditem