Hacksaws take four medals as Castellonense conquer the Champions Cup
Club Championships (Wednesday 15th July 2026)
By Phil McCracken at Iron Park
Beneath a blanket of cloud and in front of a sell-out crowd of 100,000, Iron Park staged a Champions Cup in which the margins between celebration and disappointment were sometimes measured in centimetres—and, in one extraordinary finish, could not even be seen on the official clock.
Atletismo Castellonense left the east of Scotland with the trophy after accumulating 61,012 points, finishing ahead of TuS Erbse on 58,605 and third-placed Upol Gavirate on 56,326.
Top 10 Table:
| Club | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Atletismo Castellonense | Spain | 61,012 |
| TuS Erbse | Germany | 58,605 |
| Upol Gavirate | Italy | 56,326 |
| Les Galopeurs | France | 55,165 |
| Ass. Atl. Reggio C. | Italy | 53,507 |
| Quedas Atlético | Portugal | 52,652 |
| Marsa Sports Club | Malta | 52,450 |
| Hacksaws | GB | 52,331 |
| West Lakes TC | USA | 52,133 |
| Ragnar | Indonesia | 51,580 |
Hacksaws finished eighth with 52,331 points, only 119 behind Marsa Sports Club in seventh and 198 ahead of West Lakes TC in ninth. Their men contributed 26,161 points and their women 26,170, a difference of just nine across the entire programme.
The final position did not tell the whole story of their afternoon. Hacksaws collected four medals—two silvers and two bronzes—and came agonisingly close to claiming one of the most dramatic victories of the championship.
Vainilaitis denied by an invisible margin
Laimis Vainilaitis produced Hacksaws’ most dramatic performance in the men’s 800 metres.
The Hacksaws runner crossed the line in 1:54.64, exactly the same published time as gold medallist Aníbal Arencibia of Atletismo Castellonense. With neither athlete separated by the official time shown in the results, the title was decided by a margin finer than a hundredth of a second.
Vainilaitis and Arencibia battle for the finish line in the men's 800m
Vainilaitis was awarded silver, but the result could scarcely have been closer. It was a personal best and a race in which the difference between the top two amounted to little more than the width of a hair.
Natale Fondi of TuS Erbse followed them home in 1:57.18, more than two seconds behind the pair who had fought out the finish.
Hacksaws found further encouragement in the middle-distance events through Eleonora Montalto, who ran a personal best of 4:18.99 to finish fifth in the women’s 1500 metres. Virna Capponcelli also placed fourth in the women’s 800 metres in 2:10.98, narrowly missing a place on the podium.
Two centimetres separate Santos from long-jump gold
Alfonso Santos supplied Hacksaws’ second silver medal in another contest decided by the smallest of margins.
Santos reached 7.69 metres in the men’s long jump, finishing just two centimetres behind Braulio Venegas of Atletismo Castellonense, whose winning leap measured 7.71m. Karno Setia of Ragnar took bronze with 7.59m.
There was no comfortable gap between victory and second place. One slightly stronger take-off or a fraction more distance in the landing could have transformed silver into gold.
Armando Tormo also went close in the men’s high jump, clearing 2.05m to finish fourth. Andreia Peralta matched that placing in the women’s shot with 19.74m, while Risto Riutta reached 71.22m for sixth in the men’s javelin.
Rastislav Hýravý cleared a personal best of 5.19m in the men’s pole vault, although the standard of the competition left him in 11th place.
The field events also produced the championship’s only world record. Gema Baeza of Atletismo Castellonense launched the shot to 24.41m, adding another extraordinary moment to the eventual champions’ commanding day.
Gema Baeza of Atletismo Castellonense launched the shot to 24.41m a new World Record
Bottazzini battles onto pentathlon podium
Nadia Bottazzini delivered Hacksaws’ women’s medal with a composed performance across the five disciplines of the pentathlon.
Her total of 4,576 points earned bronze, placing her behind Atletismo Castellonense’s Suhail Farrán, who won with 4,919, and TuS Erbse’s Alyssa Bärbel, who scored 4,624.
Only 48 points separated Bottazzini from silver, but she had done enough to secure Hacksaws’ third individual medal and ensure the club were represented on both the men’s and women’s podiums.
Enya Heiß also performed strongly in the heptathlon, finishing fifth with 6,097 points. Yoash Danin accumulated 7,921 points for 18th in the decathlon, while Zak McLachlan completed the men’s pentathlon in 22nd place with 3,857.
Men’s 4×400 team secure relay bronze
Hacksaws’ fourth medal arrived in the men’s 4×400 metres relay.
The Hacksaws 4×400 A team carried the baton home in 3:32.66, taking bronze behind Upol Gavirate, who won in 3:29.45, and Atletismo Castellonense, who finished just behind them in 3:29.57.
It was Hacksaws’ only relay medal, but their women came close to adding another. Hacksaws 4×400 B finished fourth in a personal-best 3:50.33, narrowly missing the podium.
The women’s Hacksaws 4×100 A team placed sixth in 50.38, while the men’s Hacksaws 4×100 A quartet finished 12th in 48.06.
The relay programme therefore brought a bronze medal, a fourth-place finish and two further contributions towards the overall club total.
Points gathered across the programme
Away from the medals, Hacksaws continued to collect valuable placings throughout the 52-event programme.
Eva Conn ran a personal best of 55.05 to finish eighth in the women’s 400 metres, while César Paixão recorded 10.99 for eighth in the men’s 100 metres.
George William was ninth in the men’s 400 metres hurdles with a personal best of 57.84, and Samuel Macdonald improved to 17.05 in the men’s 110 metres hurdles.
The longer races brought further top-ten finishes. Henry McMahon placed ninth in the men’s marathon in 2:17:11.44, while Mia Duke finished eighth in the women’s race in 2:34:00.17.
In the walks, Mhairi Lennox produced a personal best of 1:48:45.85 for fifth in the women’s 20 kilometres. Joseph Cunningham took sixth in the men’s event in 1:36:11.30, Juliano Aires was eighth over 10 kilometres in 50:42.58, and Spencer Flavell finished ninth in the men’s 50 kilometres in 4:08:29.30.
These were not the performances that seized the medals, but across a championship determined by the accumulation of results from every discipline, they helped keep Hacksaws in the contest for a higher overall position until the final totals were assembled.
Castellonense set the standard
Atletismo Castellonense’s superiority was reflected not only in the points table but also in the medal count. The champions won 32 of the 52 events and collected 46 medals in total.
TuS Erbse finished with 12 golds and 36 medals, while Upol Gavirate’s consistency earned third place in the overall standings despite winning only one event.
Hacksaws placed ninth in the medal table with their two silvers and two bronzes. Their four podium finishes came from four different areas of the programme: middle-distance running, horizontal jumps, combined events and relays.
There was no Hacksaws victory at Iron Park, but twice they came desperately close. Santos was only two centimetres from the long-jump title, while Vainilaitis was credited with precisely the same time as the man awarded 800 metres gold.
Those two silver medals captured the nature of Hacksaws’ championship. Eighth place and four medals represented a strong showing among the 62 competing clubs, but the narrowness of the defeats left a lingering sense that the final return could so easily have been greater.
As the crowd began to leave Iron Park and the cloud remained fixed above the Scottish venue, Hacksaws could reflect on a championship in which they had stood on the podium four times and finished within 119 points of seventh place.
They had not taken the Champions Cup, but they had come within two centimetres and an invisible fraction of a second of turning silver into gold.