BERLIN, Aug 11 (Xinhua) -- Spain's Alvaro Martin and Maria Perez have won the men's and women's 20km racewalk at the inaugural multi-sport European Sports Championships here on Saturday.
Martin won the men's competition with a time of 01:20:42 while Perez took the gold in the women's race with a time of 1:26:36.
Germany's Christopher Linke led the men's race until the 15 km mark before Martin piled on the pace to leave the competitors behind. Spain's Diego Garcia Carrera secured the silver medal (1:20:48) followed by bronze winner Vasiliy Mizinov of Russia (1:20:50).
"It was a very tough race. I was waiting for Christopher Linke to lose touch with the rest of the group, but it wasn't easy. There were many German supporters out here today ... it was a very open race, so I'm very happy. This is my first title," Martin said.
Perez, 22, overpowered Czech Republic's Anezka Drahotova, who was in first place for the majority of the race.
The first edition of the European Sports 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 until August 12.
