57th WMC Cross-Country – Balatonakarattya (HUN) - Update
BALATONAKARATTYA (HUN) – From November 3 to 7, the city of Balatonakarattya, a village located in the Veszprem County, by the Lake Balaton in Hungary, hosted 235 participants (174 male and 61 female) in the framework of the organization of the 57th edition of the World Military Cross-Country Championship!
In the preamble of the competition day, the Opening Ceremony was held on November 4 in the HDF Military Recreation, Training and Conference Center (MRTCC) in presence of the Chief of Staff of the Hungarian Armed Forces General Tibor BENKŐ PhD, the Official CISM Representative of the event Lieutenant-Colonel Marco Tulio Baptista, the CISM Track and Field PCSC Colonel Vincenzo Parrinello, the Organizing Committee Chairman OF-6 BG Zoltan Apati, the OC Vice-Chairman OF-5 Colonel Zoltan Eleki, the Hungarian Representative to WADA Dr. Márton Molnar and several international and local high authorities.
The first day of competition started with the male long distance event. And Algeria achieved a real demonstration with four runners in the top five of the competition. A group composed of 20 runners from Algeria, France, Poland and Tunisia took the lead right from the start. The gaps were increasing over the laps and after three laps, only five runners were still in position to win the title. Rabeh Khouas (ALG) could not follow the pace imposed by the four leaders Ali Guerine (ALG), Khireddine Bourouina (ALG), Nassim Drifel (ALG), Charles Ogari (FRA) and Hassan Chahdi (FRA).
Finally, thanks to a brilliant acceleration during the last lap, Ali Guerine managed to get rid of his opponents and became the new military world champion with a 5 seconds lead on his teammate Khireddine Bourouina (35:15.0). The French runner Charles Ogari completed the podium with a total time of 35:2.0 while Nassim Drigel and Rabeh Khaouas confirmed the Algerian domination with a place in the top five!
Indeed, considering the individual results of the long distance competition, Algeria and its four runners mentioned above also won the team competition with a 17 points lead ahead of France (Ogari, Chahdi, Durand and Theuri) while Poland (Nowicki, Gardzielewski, Brezinski and Rogiewicz) grabbed the bronze medal. Congratulations to the Algerians Guerine, Bourouina, Drifel and Khaouas for this impressive result!
The Short Distance event was also an opportunity for Algeria to prove its strength in this discipline. However, a French runner decided otherwise and put a stop to the Algerian ambitions. Indeed, Djilali Bedrani (FRA) showed out to be stronger than the rest of the competitors yesterday. After finishing the first lap out of the two in first position together with Tomasz Grycko (POL) and Yoann Kowal (FRA), Djilali kept the same high pace as during the first lap and build a 5-seconds gap that he maintained until the end of the race (13:27.2). A gold medal and a world military champion title totally deserved for the French runner Bedrani!
Rabah Aboud and Hichem Bouchicha, respectively ranked second and third in 13:32.2 and 13:33.3, brought two new medals to the Algerian Delegation! The performances of the two Algerian athletes and their teammate Mohammed Merbouhi also allowed Algeria to take the gold medal of the short distance team event ahead of France (Bedrani, Kowal and Cau) and Italy (Dini, Razine and Chiappinelli).
Finally, Romania won two medals during the female short cross competition. While ten runners were still competing for the gold medal at after the first split, the Romanian Roxana Bircă took advantage of the second part of the first lap to build a 4 seconds gap ahead of Kowalska (POL) and Simion (ROU). Bircă even managed to increase her lead during the second lap and finished the race 15 seconds ahead of the silver medalist Katarzyna Kowalska (15:44) while her teammate Simion was ranked third (15:47).
Despite their brilliant performances in the individual event, Bircă and Simion did not grab any medal in the team event, due to the 30th place of their teammate Botezan. Romania was finally ranked fourth while the French team composed of Mezeghrane, Duarte and Boumahdi took the gold medal ahead of Poland (Kowalska, Trzaskalska and Kalendarova-Ochal) and Italy (Merlo, Dal Ri and Brogiato).
Algeria also won the Supercup title and was ranked first in the overall medal table. What an incredible performance from the Algerian Delegation!
Following the end of the competitions, the Closing Ceremony Opening Ceremony was held on November 4 in the HDF Military Recreation, Training and Conference Center (MRTCC) in presence of the Hungarian Minister of Defense Dr. István Simicskó, the Official CISM Representative of the event Lieutenant-Colonel Marco Tulio Baptista, the CISM Track and Field PCSC Colonel Vincenzo Parrinello, the Organizing Committee Chairman OF-6 BG Zoltan Apati, the OC Vice-Chairman OF-5 Colonel Zoltan Eleki, and several international and local high authorities.
During the Closing Ceremony, the CISM OCR Lieutenant-Colonel Marco Tulio Baptista also handed over the CISM Flag to the Angolan Delegation, as the City of Luanda will host the 58th WMC Cross-Country from 8 to 13 November 2018!
Thank you Hungary for this wonderful organization and we hope to see you in Luanda!
RESULTS OF THE DAY:
Short Distance: Individual Male – Team Male – Individual Female – Team Female
Long Distance: Individual Male – Team Male
You can download all the pictures of the 20th WMC Equestrian 2017 on the CISM Flickr Account.
For more information, visit the OC Official Facebook Page and the OC Official Website.
(Source: CISM Media and Communication Department)
(Pictures: WO Dominique Einsweiler, CISM Photographer)
