The Algarve's Daniela Campos was in 9th place in the points race of the European Track Championship, held this Saturday, October 9th, in Grenchen (Switzerland). João Matias, athlete from Louletano-Loulé Concelho, finished 10th in the omnium.
Daniela Campos surprised in the race for points, in what is her first participation in an elite European Championship. The Algarve runner was always well placed since the beginning of the race, attentive to all the movements that were happening.
With 31 laps to go, he started from the group, winning the seventh sprint, which allowed him to add five points. Daniela Campos didn't let it stop there, adding three more points in two different sprints, thus conquering the 9th place in the race.
João Matias started with an 11th place in the race of scratch and a 12th place in the time race, which placed him 14th overall.
In the elimination race, the Portuguese rider remained at the front of the pack during the first laps, thus ensuring his permanence in the race.
From the seventh elimination, João Matias began to fall in the group and, after some dangerous situations, which he managed to avoid, would eventually be eliminated, finishing in 11th place. This time, the Portuguese runner entered the race for points in 12th place overall, just six points from the top 10.
The points race would end up being quite busy, which made it difficult for the Portuguese, who would drop some places early in the race, after a group of eight riders managed to do the folding.
«However, Matias didn't lower his arms and, after a lot of effort, he also managed to walk around and regain some positions», says the Portuguese Cycling Federation.
The Portuguese runner would eventually go back in the classification, given the high pace of the race and the various runners trying to regain positions. However, once again, João Matias did not give up and, with only six laps to go, he gained an advantage over the peloton, thus managing to gain enough points in the last sprint to move up to 10th position, with 89 points.
Gabriel Mendes, national coach, was very pleased with the results of both runners.
“With Daniela we approached the race with the awareness that this is her first competition in the elite category. He managed to be always in the race and scored points with surprise and intelligence. She gave very good indications and I am very satisfied with her work. Already the program of omnium it was very demanding, but João did very well. We had a less good race, the time race, but the rest were within what was expected. He had an excellent contest and managed to fulfill one of the goals, which was to finish in the top 10», he said.
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