The Spanish team debuts at the Belgrade World Cup with good news in the men’s 800 and 3,000
Maribel Pérez suffers an error from the judges, Hortelano stays in the semifinals and Claudia Conte finishes sixth in the pentathlon
MADRID, 18 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish athletics team began its participation in the Indoor World Cup in Belgrade on Friday with a bittersweet taste, achieving presence in four finals, in addition to Marta Pérez’s 16th place in the 3,000, and Claudia Conte’s sixth place in the pentathlon , but with the tears of Maribel Pérez after seeing her work destroyed by the judges.
The Stark Arena started in the morning session and Spain took out those four tickets there. Mariano García and Álvaro de Arriba will be in the 800 fight and Adel Mechaal also fulfilled in the 3,000. Meanwhile, Marta Pérez got the ticket to the final of the 1,500 and in the afternoon she doubled in a 3,000 that was won by the Ethiopian Lemlem Hailu.
The morning also meant the contact of two proper names of the Spanish delegation. Maribel Pérez, in 60 meters, and the international return of Bruno Hortelano, in the 400, advanced to the semifinals, but in the afternoon their options were cut short by a mistaken decision by the judges, corrected with the damage already done, and by a street 1 that raised the demand a lot.
The Sevillian, who arrived full of a winter in which she lowered the national record five times, was disqualified for a false start, in which, however, it seemed clear in the image that the first to move was the Swedish Claudia Payton. The judges changed their red with Maribel herself pointing out what happened on the screen.
From the tremendous fright, with his heart in his fist, the Sevillian lightning bolt went back to the straight out of his mind and, although he made a great 7:20, he did not have the option to compete, to look for another record, and to be in the final. Nor did a Hortelano reach that fight who had it very difficult from lane 1, and he finished fourth in his semifinal, already thinking about the promising 4×400 relay on Sunday.
In addition, Marta Pérez was confirmed as the first Spanish athlete in history, male or female, to compete in two events in the same championship without one of them being the relay. In the morning she secured her first final, with a 1,500 in which she was fifth with 4: 10.09, in the fastest series of the heats.
In the afternoon, the soriana returned to action with the final of the 3,000 and, although she fell far short of an ambitious goal of being ‘Top 8’, she fulfilled that double. Marta began to drop midway through the race and suffered in the final laps to enter 16th with a time of 8:57.81.
For Saturday, the final of the 800 will have good national representation with ‘La Moto’ Mariano García, who won his series this Friday (1:48.32) acting as world leader of the year. In addition, De Arriba, fifth in Birmingham 2018, signed a spectacular comeback in the last 200 meters to finish second with 1:47.97.
For times Mechaal also wanted to go direct and ensure his presence on Sunday, although he had to grit his teeth in two very compact final laps. The Catalan, a European record a month ago, squeezed himself in a long sprint to get the pass with 7:52.27.
In addition, Claudia Conte finished the pentathlon in sixth position with 4,499 points, a personal best thanks in large part to her performance in height (1.83), weight (12.73) and length (6.13). Meanwhile, fighting for the finalist position, Jorge Ureña will be in the heptathlon.
The man from Onil, with a sore foot, had a difficult morning but improved in height, with 2.05 (his best mark of the year), and remains in tenth position (3,365), 46 points behind eighth.