The track and field events will close the Junior and Under-23 European Championships in Anadia, which will be held between 14 and 19 July. Over the six days of competition, athletes from 30 nations will be present to dispute 44 European titles in the various disciplines.
Last year the European Track and Field Championships were held in Apeldoorn, in the Netherlands, but the focus is now on the 2022 edition, which will take the best athletes to the Sangalhos National Velodrome, in Anadia.
The official training sessions started yesterday, July 11th, but the competition will only start on Thursday, July 14th. On that first day, between 11am and 4pm, the individual pursuit and team speed qualifications will take place, with the competition itself happening between 5.30pm and 8.42pm, with the scratch and team speed races for junior men and women, and the elimination and individual pursuit races for under-23 men and women.
The Germans Nicolas Heinrich and Tobias Buck-Gramcko are two of the athletes to watch out for in the individual pursuit race. In this discipline, Heinrich was second in the Glasgow World Cup behind Corentin Ermenault. At the World Cup in Milton, Canada, he took victory. Buck-Gramcko is not far behind in his career. He is German vice-champion in the time trial and European under-23 champion in the individual pursuit. In the same discipline he was fourth in the Glasgow World Cup and second in Milton.
On July 15 we will have qualifications for the afternoon races between 10h00 and 14h12. The competition will start at 16h00, at which time we will have the 1 kilometre time trial for junior men, the team pursuit and elimination for junior men and women, and also the scratch and team speed races for under-23 men and women. On this day, the competition will end at 21h25.
On this day, the main riders to watch out for are Italian Dario Igor Belleta, world junior elimination champion, British Grace Lister, European junior team pursuit champion, and the German duo Ben-Felix Jochum and Jasper Schröder, world junior individual pursuit champions. In the under-23 category, the British James Bunting, European team speed champion, and the Portuguese Rodrigo Caixas, European scratch champion.
The competition continues on July 16, with the qualifications between 10am and 2.25pm and the finals between 4.30pm and 9.02pm. On that day we will have the speed race for junior men and the individual pursuit for both sectors of the junior category. In addition, there will also be the 1km time trial for under-23 men and the team pursuit for both under-23 sections.
To watch out on the third day of under-23 competition will be Italy’s Silvia Zanardi and Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini, European team pursuit champions, and Germany’s Lena Charlotte Reisser, world champion in the same discipline. For the men, Daan Kool (Netherlands), European one-kilometre time trial champion in the under-23 category.
The next day, 17 July, will see one of the most important competitions: the omnium, for junior men and women. The riders in the junior category will also have to face the 500 metres time trial, for the female sector, and speed, for the male sector. In the case of the under-23s, this will be the day to dispute the speed races, in the men’s sector, and also the points race, in both sectors. On this day, the qualifications will take place between 11h00 and 13h27 and the finals between 15h00 and 20h46.
Portugal will be well represented in the under-23 men’s points race, with Diogo Narciso, silver medal in this same discipline at the European Championships. For the junior men’s omnium, the British Joshua Tarling, junior European omnium champion, and Rodovan Stec, world junior champion also in omnium, are two other names to keep in mind.
On the penultimate day of competition, July 18, in the morning, between 11h00 and 13h42, the qualifications for the afternoon races will take place, as well as the 500m time trial final for the under-23 athletes. In the afternoon, between 16h00 and 20h54 we will have the points race and the keirin for the junior men and women and the speed race for the under-23 men. This will be an important day for the athletes in this category, as they will face the omnium race in the men’s and women’s sectors.
In men’s under-23 speed all eyes will be on Tijmen Van Loon (Netherlands). In the Glasgow World Cup the Dutchman was part of the team speed team that won bronze, together with two of the best sprinters in the world: Harrie Lavreysen and Sam Ligtlee. Besides that, he also won the team speed in the World Cup in Milton, Canada, where he teamed up with Jeffrey Hoogland. Another athlete to watch out for will be Tim Torn Teutenberg (Germany), in the omnium race. The German was seventh at Glasgow stage of the Elite World Cup in this same discipline and fourth at Milton, Canada.
July 19 will be the last day of competition at the Junior and Under-23 European Track Championships with the morning dedicated to qualifications and the madison race for junior women, between 10h00 and 12h05. In the afternoon, between 2pm and 5.26pm will be the keirin races, for under-23 men and women, plus the junior men’s and under-23 men’s keirin races in both sectors.
Great Britain will be one of the nations to watch out for in the madison event, with William Tidball, European under-23 champion in this discipline, and also the duo Josh Charlton and Joshua Giddings, last year’s junior European champions, now competing at under-23 level.
