MADRID, 18 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish athletics team faces the World Athletics Championship with 58 athletes, which will take place from August 19 to 27 in Budapest, with the march and the middle distance, where the trio of 1,500 stands out, as the great assets to get medals .
Spain faces the World Cup with the intention of improving the two bronze medals from the event in Eugene (United States) in 2022. The medals won by Mo Katir (1500) and Asier Martínez (110 hurdles) were the only medals, in a performance that surpassed the only medal of Doha 2019.
The test to highlight in the Hungarian capital will be the 1,500, one of the most even in the entire World Cup, with up to 9 athletes with marks below 3:30 minutes, two of them Spanish. Mo Katir (3:28:89) is registered with the second best mark, only behind the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen (3:27:14), a great favorite and one of the current reference athletes.
Behind him appears Mario García Romo (3:29:18) who may have his options, since he arrives in very good shape, like the third Spaniard in contention, Adel Mechaal (3:31:43), who Despite having a less striking brand, he was able to prevail in the Torrent Spanish Championship and can take advantage of his greater experience if the race becomes cloudy.
In addition, Katir will double the test, looking at the 5,000 meters, where again Ingbrigtsen will be one of the main rivals, along with the Ethiopians Berihu Aregawi and Yomif Kejelcha. The Spaniards Thierry Ndikumwenayo, recent champion of the European Games, and Ouassim Oumaiz, who surprised in the Spanish championship, but his irregularity may weigh on him, will also run.
In the short middle distance test, the 800, the Spanish trio with Adrián Ben, Mophamed Attaoui and the champion in Torrent, Saúl Ordoñez, does not arrive among the top favourites, but they are riders with enough quality to surprise and have options of get into the final and once in it wait for a race that favors them and look for their moment.
After the middle distance, the march appears as the great Spanish option, the Granada-born María Pérez is a world record holder and a great favorite in the 35-kilometre march, where Raquel González, European silver medalist, is another of the marchers called to opt for the metals. In the 20 kilometers, Pérez arrives with the best mark of the year and opts for a double. The 20 kilometers remain in the Olympic program, making it an important test for Paris 2024.
In the men’s category, Álvaro Martín will double the distance and is an option in both, especially in the short test, in which Diego García Carrera arrives in less than optimal shape, while in the 35′ Martín will be accompanied by Miguel Ángel López and Marc Tur , which without being favourites, appear in the second step.
From here on, the options for national medals become more complicated, mainly due to casualties, although the passion to compete can always bring surprises in Spanish athletics. The Olympic medalist in the triple jump, Ana Peleteiro, resigned from the test due to her poor form after being a mother and the medalist in the 110 hurdles in Eugene, Asier Martínez, has gone through a year of ordeal due to injuries and will not run in the Magyar country either.
Among the young women, the combinera María Vicente stands out, who this year has focused on competitions and will double in length and triple, despite the fact that she has made it clear that her Olympic goal is the heptlaton, an event in which she was a medalist in lower categories.
The rest of the Spaniards hope to compete with the best, such as the sprinter Jael Bestué (100 and 200 meters), who opts to beat the Spanish record in both events. Sandra Myers and the men’s and women’s 4×400 relay will seek their finals, while there will be no national representation in the individual 400.
Outside of the Spanish, the main protagonists appear in the triple double, where the Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas competes practically against herself and her world record, and in the men’s category, the Portuguese Pedro Pichardo, Olympic and world champion, will seek to revalidate the crown.
The world’s most dominant athlete, Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, is competing against his world record of 6.22 meters and anything short of a clear victory would be the surprise of the competition. Like the Norwegian Karsten Warholm in the 400 hurdles, although he has two serious rivals in the American Rai Benjamin and Brazilian Alison Dos Santos.
In the speed tests, in the men’s category there is the unknown of the Italian Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs, who due to injuries has competed little in 2023, while the British Zharnel Hughes arrives with the best mark of the year (9.83), although he appears the alternative of the Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala, who with 9.84 seeks to put Africa on the hectometre map. The American Noah Lyles has declared his intention to leave Budapest with three golds, but his fetish is the 200.
In the double hectometre Lyles is looking for the world record of Usain Bolt (19.19) but the American arrives with a mark of 19.47 this year and 19.31 in his career, so he would have to have a historic day to achieve your goal. Yes, he is a clear favorite for gold, where the runner from Botswana Letsile Tebogo (19.50) is the alternative, while the gold in Tokyo, the Canadian Andre De Grasse has not managed to go below 20 seconds in 2023 and is far from be a candidate