Daunay Oldest, Fastest European Marathon Champ

DAUNAY BECOMES FASTEST, OLDEST EUROPEAN MARATHON CHAMPION
By David Monti, @d9monti

“It
was difficult course,” Daunay would tell reporters later. “I had to be
patient. In this difficult race the four times I had to climb.”

As
she uttered those words at the post-race press conference, she looked
over at Straneo, the world championships silver medalist from Moscow
last August. Her admiration for the Italian, who set an honest pace of
1:12:23 through halfway, was clear. Daunay knew that her strongest
rival had given her all today and had been beaten.

“I was
looking for Valeria because she’s very strong,” said Daunay. “But, I
know I am strong as well, so I attacked at the end.”

Using the
final downhill portion of the course, Daunay pushed the pace, slowly
left the cramping Straneo, and rolled to the finish line in a
championships and all-comers record of 2:25:14, a time the Italian head
marathon coach Lucio Gigliotti called “fantastic” given the difficulty
of the course.

“I’m very, very happy to have won the gold
medal,” said the always modest Daunay. She continued: “I’m proud to be
part of the French team, and I wanted to get up on the podium as well.
The other gold medal winners from France showed me the way.”

Straneo,
who equaled her 2:25:27 time of the 2012 London Olympics, was pleased
with her silver medal, despite the expectations of many Italian fans
that she was the likely winner.

“Christelle was stronger
today,” she said plainly in English. “I was not granted today that I
would be at podium. Marathon is difficult. It’s not granted. I’m happy
to be on the podium. The podium is wonderful. Wow!”

Behind the
first two women, Portugal’s Jessica Augusto had run an intelligent
race. After Straneo took the lead group out at a very swift 17:20, she
allowed herself to fall back. She realized that was too fast for her
today, and she needed to hold something in reserve if she was going to
have a chance for the podium.

“I was a little behind the first group, but I listened to my body and went with my rhythm,” she said in French.

Holding
a steady pace, she caught, fell behind, then caught again Turkey’s
Olympic silver medalist Elvan Abeylegesse who struggled with the steep
climb on each loop. With one 10-kilometer circuit left to go, Augusto
was about 20 seconds behind the leaders, but well ahead of the fading
Abeylegesse, Croatia’s Lisa Nemec (nee Stublic) and Italy’s Anna
Incerti, the defending champion. She held that position to win
Portugal’s first medal of these championships in 2:25:41.

“I am happy to have won the first medal for Portugal,” she said. “I worked for that medal.”

Nemec
(2:28:36), Abeylegesse (2:29:46) and Incerti (2:29:58) rounded out the
top six, and were the only other athletes to break 2:30. Two other
medal contenders, Spain’s Alessandra Aguilar and Germany’s Sabrina
Mockenhaupt, had bad days. Both failed to finish.

The Luik
triplets, who comprised the Estonian team, all finished. Liina was 28th
(2:41:48), Leila was 43rd (2:45:59) and Lily was 47th (2:48:49).

As
for Daunay, she enjoyed a special satisfaction from her victory. While
she was a good runner in her 20’s, she didn’t blossom into a star until
her mid-30’s. Like Britain’s Jo Pavey, who won the 10,000m earlier this
week at 40 years-old, Daunay is thankful for every good day of training
she has.

“It is my pleasure to work to continue my career,” she
said. “As long as I’m in shape, I’m going to run and continue running
with a lot of pleasure. The gold medal I won makes me want to continue
to run. I don’t know what my next step will be. In the next few days
I’m going to think about it.”

For this evening, however, she said she would celebrate with at least a little French wine.

“Yes, champagne,” she said.

PHOTO:
Valeria Straneo of Italy and Christelle Daunay of France begin the
final 10-kilometer lap of the 2014 European Championships Marathon in
Zurich