Spanish race walkers complete the ‘Triple Crown’ after triumphing at the European Championships, World Championships and Olympic Games
PARIS, 7 (by EUROPA PRESS special correspondent Gaspar Díez)
Spanish couple María Pérez and Álvaro Martín won the gold medal in the mixed relay marathon race walk at the Paris Olympic Games on Wednesday, held at the Trocadero circuit, ahead of Ecuadorians Brian Daniel Pintado and Glenda Morejón, and added their second ‘metal’ in the French capital after silver and bronze in the 20 kilometers.
The bronze medal went to Australians Jemima Montag and Rhydian Cowley, more than a minute behind the champions, while the other Spaniards, Cristina Montesinos and Miguel Ángel López, finished in ninth place, half a minute behind the Olympic diploma.
María Pérez and Álvaro Martín made history. They already have the ‘Triple Crown’ after winning gold at the 2023 Budapest World Championships, the 2018 Berlin European Championships and these Olympic Games, where they also became the first Spanish athletes to win two medals in the same edition of the universal event.
“It’s not the Triple Crown, but for me it is,” said the Granada native after finishing second behind China’s Jianju Yang in the 20k in Paris. Pérez already has it, and with the medal already around her neck, she has already embraced the idea of competing in the mixed relay and winning that joint Triple Crown with her friend Álvaro, whom she had hugged minutes before in front of Queen Letizia.
The RFEA confirmed this ‘galactic’ duo days later and the debut of the marathon walk in the Olympic programme brought more good news for Spanish athletics. Under a cloudy grey sky that covered the Eiffel Tower, dozens of red and yellow flags encouraged the feat of an already legendary couple.
In the first leg, 11.4 kilometres, the selection for the Olympic diplomas was made, with a group made up of the first couples from Ecuador, Italy, Brazil, China, Mexico, Australia, Peru and a solid Martín who was always in the leading positions.
That same group remained almost unchanged in the second, in which María Pérez lost a few metres in the last kilometre and finished sixth to Martín, just 7 seconds behind the leader, the Australian Jemima Montag, bronze in the 20-kilometre walk at these Paris Games.
THE TEAM AND OLYMPIC GLORY
The delay in taking over the baton was not a problem because the walker from Extremadura quickly neutralised the distance and left alongside the Ecuadorian Brian Daniel Pintado, Olympic champion in the 20-kilometre walk and who made the final selection of the favourites.
The three-minute penalty imposed on Chinese Jun Zhag for the accumulation of three penalties removed the threat from the Olympic champion in the final leg. Pintado pushed to the maximum until the second penalty forced him to raise the pace and allowed Martín to overtake him in the last kilometer by a handful of seconds.
Pérez managed to take control of the lead in the final kilometres, in which she increased her lead over Morejón, who could not push hard due to the threat of a sanction, and the Australian Montag, who took silver and bronze and was now far from the glory achieved by the athlete from Orce, who was unable to enjoy the Eiffel Tower in the 20 kilometres and who, this time, celebrated that she had now become a myth under the elongated figure of the Iron Lady.