MADRID, 11 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish team competes this Sunday in the European cross-country in Fingal (Dublin), the most successful competition for national athletics to which it returns two years later, due to the cancellation in 2020 due to the coronavirus, with a powerful squad but the last minute low of Irene Sánchez Escribano.
The Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA) announced the absence of the current double champion of Spain “due to physical discomfort”, this Saturday afternoon. Sánchez Escribano was one of the important assets of a Spanish team that has returned from this competition with a medal in twenty-five out of twenty-six editions.
The bronze achieved by the men’s team in Lisbon 2019 was the last metal in a European Cross. The coach José Peiró and the sports management of the RFEA made a preselection of 40 athletes, 15 of whom were already in the Portuguese capital. Yes there will be the men’s championship, Carlos Mayo or Ayad Lamdassem, the most successful athlete in the discipline, in its ninth edition.
Abdessamad Oukhelfen, 2019 U23 bronze medalist; Nassim Hassaous, Raúl Celada and Adel Mechaal, five medals and returning to a European Championship after his absence in 2019, complete the men’s team. Before Irene’s discharge, Blanca Fernández will bring the experience to the Olympic debutants Carlina Robles, Laura Luengo, Lidia Campo and Carmela Cardama.
As for the mixed relay, the champions in the Atapuerca short cross, Marta García and Abderraman El Khayami, will be accompanied by Esther Guerrero and Víctor Ruíz, two expert athletes in the competition. The circuit, very close to the sea, is located northwest of Dublin, 9 kilometers in a straight line from the center. Without significant slopes, there will be two routes, a short lap of 1,000 meters and a long lap of 1,500 meters.