MADRID, 22 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Gallur Municipal Sports Center, in Madrid, will host this Friday from 6:45 p.m. the seventh and last stop of the World Athletics Indoor Tour in its Gold category, an event that will also be the last on the international calendar before the World Indoor Championships, which will take place will be held in Glasgow (Scotland) from March 1 to 3.
The Los Cármenes neighborhood will once again be the focus of attention for the indoor track, renamed 'short track'. Furthermore, this meeting will put the cherry on top of the World Athletics golden circuit, after the eighth meeting scheduled in Birmingham (United Kingdom) was cancelled.
Thus, the Madrid tartan will experience the final events of this circuit with a dozen world medalists, including double Olympic medalist Tom Walsh in shot put and world record holder Devynne Charlton, leader of the year in the 60 meter hurdles. In addition, six current European champions will go to the Latina district.
Middle distance runner Mohamed Katir will not be there, sanctioned by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) after his location failures in anti-doping controls. This has joined the controversy over the list of the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA) to go to Glasgow, with Adrián Ben, Óscar Husillos and Belén Toimil being excluded.
Toimil shone in Ourense during the Spanish Indoor Championship, an event that handed the baton to Gallur on home soil. New Zealander Tom Walsh will lead a weight competition where seven of its participants have once exceeded 22.00 m. A double Olympic medalist and three-time world champion (two indoors), Walsh holds the Oceania record with 22.90 m and this season he has already reached 22.16 m.
The title of the World Indoor Tour will be played on the one hand with Roger Steen, recent American runner-up and leader of the circuit, and on the other hand with the Czech Tomas Stanek, European 'indoor' medalist in the last four championships. However, the Italian Leonardo Fabbri threw 22.37 m in Liévin (France) and will do battle in Gallur.
In the 60 m hurdles, Bahamian Devynne Charlton arrives with her brand new world record of 7.67. The indoor world runner-up is immersed in the fight for the World Indoor Tour, which she would win if she wins in Madrid. She will face the Dutch Nadine Visser, European leader (7.80); to the Finnish Reetta Hurske, European champion and winner in 2023; and the Polish Pia Skrzyszowska, European 100 m hurdles champion.
In the men's event, outside the World Indoor Tour, the last three European champions face each other: the Swiss Jason Joseph, second European in history with 7.41; Frenchman Wilhem Belocian, fifth all-time with 7.42; and the Cypriot Milan Trajkovic. The Spaniards Quique Llopis and Asier Martínez, along with the Italian record holder Lorenzo Simonelli, promise equality in a race that predicts less than 7.50.
LUXURY IN THE MIDDLE DEPTH AND EVERYTHING TO DECIDE IN THE COMPETITIONS
The men's 800 m will crown the Italian Catalin Tecuceanu in the World Indoor Tour if he wins in Madrid. He must overcome two European champions such as Adrián Ben and Álvaro de Arriba, as well as the Spanish leader Mohamed Attaoui (1: 45.49). In the women's 800 m, outside the international circuit, the Ethiopian duo of Worknesh Mesele and Tigist Girma will put everything in line one by one to try to get under two minutes.
In the 1500 m, the British runner-up Revée Walcott-Nolan, the 2021 European champion Elise Vanderelst and the under-18 world record holder, the Ethiopian Saron Berhe (4:06.62), will face three of the fittest Spanish women: Marta Pérez, Marta García and Águeda Marqués.
The men's triple jump will decide the World Indoor Tour champion among three candidates. The Algerian Yasser Triki leads the classification, who would be better off being third depending on the combinations, while the Portuguese Tiago Pereira and the Frenchman Jean-Marc Pontvianne must win and hope that the leader fails. The Spanish Jordan Díaz will be another favorite to win, having a mark of 17.37 m.
In the women's length, the Serbian Milica Gardasevic and the Hungarian Diana Lesti, separated by only three points, will play for the title in the presence of the Romanian Florentina Iusco, who this year has a personal best of 6.92 m. Similarly, the Spanish Fátima Diame and Tessy Ebosele know what it means to overcome the 6.80 meter barrier.