MADRID, 17 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Madrid Meeting was presented this Friday at the Vallehermoso Stadium, an event of the World Athletics Continental Tour Silver where some of the best athletes in the world will compete on Saturday, and a temple of athletics in the capital, which once again shows its “bet” on this sport.
“World athletics, not just Spanish, is experiencing a brilliant time, breaking records in each competition. This year 83 records have been broken for Spain. I am not envious, what I experience in the stands is as satisfying as being on the track I am very happy for national athletics”, said the president of the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA), Raúl Chapado.
Chapado thanked the Madrid institutions for their “commitment to athletics”. “Madrid has always been athletics. It is very important for the bases to have references, who are going to enjoy them from the stands, and what these events leave behind. They project the city, Madrid is the World Capital of Sport”, he pointed out.
“It is important that a city demonstrates its commitment to sport, not just the elite. This is how it is done here, everything is sport,” he added. The athletes who will seek to make Madrid’s green track their own were represented at this presentation ceremony by Mariano García, Sara Gallego and Ramil Guliyev.
The Catalan hurdler, who has just smashed her record in Spain, hoped to continue growing in a summer with World and European Championships, after a change in the rhythm structure. “It was something that she knew she would get, but she didn’t know she was going to turn out so well,” said a medalist in all categories.
“One of the things I was most frustrated with was to see if I could maintain the level (now at all). Right now I think more about my brand, every time I improve it it’s going to be a Spanish record. We’re going to be in the Championships also try to finish as well as possible”, said Gallego, not caring about the heat in Madrid.
The afternoon was hot in Vallehermoso and Mariano García, indoor world champion, hopes that it will be his ‘Moto’ that will warm up. “We hope to start carburizing the bike well, which has not yet been done this summer,” said the Murcian, who arrives in Madrid without knowing his route yet after the Spanish Championship next week.
After two bad results in the Diamond League, Mariano hopes to put on a show in Madrid, where he already had a good afternoon. “The last week I am training very well and we hope that it will come out in competition and be able to give everyone a cane. In Madrid in recent years I have competed quite well, let’s see if I continue the streak”, he said.
“I don’t know which one I’ll do, the World Cup or the European Championship, I’m playing for the place and it’s the coach’s decision. I don’t want to do both because I don’t know if I’ll be able to maintain both peaks of fitness,” he added. Together with Chapado, Sofía Miranda, Sports Delegate of the Madrid City Council, and Alberto Tomé, Deputy Minister of Sports of the Community of Madrid, led the launch of the Meeting.
Before, Chapado began his speech by sending a hug to the Venezuelan Olympic champion Yulimar Rojas, a sensitive last-minute drop for this Saturday’s appointment. “It is the home of great athletes and also of hundreds of children who come here every week to practice athletics,” said Sofía Miranda.
“Not only does it open for major championships, Madrid has established itself as a benchmark for athletics and also for the grassroots. That is why we are the World Capital of Sport, because of the importance we have given to grassroots sports, as well as the ability to organize sporting events” , he added.
Tomé, for his part, highlighted the wide range of athletics offered by the Community and made a special nod to the Chamberí stadium, which closed in 2007 and returned to being the temple of the beautiful sport 12 years later. “Who doesn’t do athletics in the Community of Madrid is because he doesn’t want to, we have a lot of tracks, like this temple of athletics”, he pointed out.