The Course de la Nive did not escape the whims of the weather. This Sunday morning, the peloton benefited from a beautiful sunny morning, but also from an unexpected rise in the mercury. So much so that the bucolic run by the water had many participants sticking their tongues out.
Some, out of breath, collapsed when they reached the Pannecau bridge in Bayonne, the final point of this 10km, forcing the emergency services to intervene: “It’s true, forcing too much with this hot shot leads to serious failures,” said Souletin Nicolas Espadrilles covering the 10 terminals Duplaa (40 min 50): “I really liked this route along the Nive, without difficulty and with this holiday party in the city. »
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On Sunday, a new race configuration at 10 km, more accessible to the majority of running enthusiasts, and a friendly finish in the center of Bayonne allowed the organizers of the Ximista association to exceed 800 runners this year. Most of them came to stretch their legs, they struggled for almost twenty hours.
Nicolas Mariani, an Anglo athlete from the Basque Country, even managed to shake the needles by setting a race record: 30 minutes 53. One minute better than the one set last year by former cycling champion Alexys Brunel! The young champion wasted no time in attacking from the start on the banks of the Nive near the Villefranche pedestrian bridge. “From the beginning, I set my pace by doing 3 minutes in the first kilometer, no one followed me, I continued without stopping until the end. »
Mariani hastily left two of his pursuers – Antoni Monye from Catalonia and Jordan Pount from Gironde – by one minute: “It is impossible to follow Nicolas Mariani, he is very strong”, – admitted the brother of the winner of the race. castles.