MADRID, 10 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish athletics team won world bronze this Saturday in the men’s category at the Mountain Classic, a golden finish at the event that the Austrian Alps hosted, seven months after proclaiming themselves runners-up in Chiang Mai.
Andreu Blanes (6th at the time) and Álex García (15th) repeated from the Thailand team, while the third man in Thailand, Miquel Corbera, had been absent after his fall as soon as he started on Thursday in the vertical of the Mountain & Trail Running World Championship.
He was replaced in Innsbruck by Eduard Hernández and the U23 athlete Ibai Larrea, in two hard laps in search of the podium. The Ugandan Isaac Kibet set the tone with the Kenyan Philemon Kiriago and the German Abraham close together, in a first ascent that left Kiriago alone.
After almost three kilometers of continuous descent with which they finished the first lap (then in the second they went back to wander more around Innsbruck), Kirigao, Abraham and Chemutai remained in the lead.
Meanwhile, Álex García began a great comeback, quickly ranking among the top 10 to crown sixth. Andreu was 15th and Ibai closed the points 27th, with Eduard very close. Chemutai won with eight seconds of margin over Kiriago and repeated the individual title for Uganda, but with another protagonist. Abraham was third.
As for the Spaniards, García Carrillo, exultant at his arrival at the finish line, was sixth. Blanes was very solid in the last kilometers and finished tenth and Ibai Larrea held on to finish 26th. Eduard Hernández suffered more in the final part and finished 50th.