MADRID, 10 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM) announced this Wednesday the signing of an agreement with the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA) to find the best strategy for Spanish walkers in the new mixed relay discipline that will be at the Paris Olympic Games. of this coming summer.
The agreement includes carrying out a study on the athletes to face the mixed relay event, which will be a pioneer in Paris, with the aim of fighting for the medals. The new distance of 42.195 km, exactly the same as a marathon, will involve five athletes in the relays, with the consequent risk of inactivity for the athlete who has to be ‘standing’ for 40 minutes.
The director of the High Performance Sports Research Center (CIARD) of the UCAM, Pedro Emilio Alcaraz, stated that they are “analyzing the physiological response of the first sector, in order to know dehydration, metabolic, cardiovascular changes or core temperature. among others, in order to apply a protocol that helps restore the athletes’ values to the levels prior to the start of the test.”
With this, according to Alcaraz, the objective is to ensure that these athletes “do not reduce their performance in the subsequent relay” in search of “optimal performance in the second post after remaining ‘inactive’, with a rewarming to produce the enhancement of the neuromuscular system, and thus improve your brand.
For his part, the president of the RFEA, Raúl Chapado, thanked the UCAM for “innovation and research work to enhance the performance of walkers, where Spain is a world power.”
The Murcian university organization has been working for years with athletes of the stature of Álvaro Martín (world champion in 20 and 35 km walking), María Pérez (world champion in 20 and 35 km) and Miguel Ángel López and Mariano García, and has doing couples monitoring work that spans from the Spanish Championship in Zaragoza in February and the Valencia Meeting in March. The protocol will continue to be refined ahead of the next major event, the World Race Walking Championships, which will take place on April 21 in Antalya, Turkey.