After the 15th Century Spanish Feast and Katir’s catwalk and fourth place for García Romo and eleventh for Ignacio Fontes and his harmony and good vibrations, the octogenarians jump on the synthetic of Hayward Field and pose the same conditions.
You have to go around as it is.
And if they all pass, all three, like the three men of the fifteenth century, so much the better.
Well, that’s how the three of them were these days.
-We eat together, we go to the physio together, we train together. We have been playing table tennis together for two weeks. If we have to do all this together, it’s better that there is a good atmosphere, right? asks Álvaro de Arriba (28), who finished third and passed the lap, but had a bad time.
Álvaro de Arriba reaches the finish line with Emmanuel Korir, Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion, this Wednesday
-It’s that this 1m49s30… -he said in the mixed zone.
– Didn’t you see it clearly?
-It was a complex race, with many changes. We started too slow (56.80 on the 400) and I had to be smart to position myself better in the changes of the last 300. The best thing about all of this is that I was able to regulate to enter the home straight with a lot of force.
-And what does it look like? we ask him.
(De Arriba was European indoor champion in 2019 and bronze in 2017)
– In a way, I’m the best ever. But that’s not a guarantee. In the 800m, you run three finals in four days.
Adrian Ben, this Wednesday in Eugene
Mariano García (24) is another Mariano García.
He looks like a scholar from the 800s, who would have believed three years ago when he was going blind.
He did not know his rivals, did not study them, did not analyze them.
He said: “I opted for the one in yellow, I don’t know what country he is from”.
And also: “The one who beat me was very fat.
-I knew those of my city and those of the region, it is with whom I had to fight -is justified in mixed zone-. But now I already know these international opponents. I ran with them a few times.
I knew those of my city and those of the region, with whom I had to fight”
And that’s true.
He ran two Europeans indoors. And with that, two outdoor World Cups. And in fact, he is the current indoor world champion (Belgrade, last March).
So it says:
-Little joke with the series that touched me. There was the Canadian Bol, and the British Langford, and the French Robert, and the American Brazier, world champion in 2019, who left (he is sixth, in 1m46s72; injuries put this talented ahead of the discipline ). And all of them lost 1m45s and even 1m44s at some point, which I didn’t. But hey, it went well.
And so well: Mariano García wins the place by being third, in 1m45s74.
-And I’m six hundredths off my best grade! – he shouts, and is happy that he is going to meet Gabi Lorente, his trainer, a happy trainer of these World Cups because he also manages Mo Katir, the bronze medalist in the 1500 m.
Adrián Ben (23) is not so happy.
In fact, he is furious.
He was world finalist in Doha 2019 (6th) and Olympic finalist in Tokyo 2020 (5th), two stages that no 18-year-old Spaniard had ever taken.
But now he is out (4th in his series, at 1m46s71).
And he tells us:
-How are you? Because I can’t be fine. Man, after two finals, I now see myself eliminated in the qualifying rounds… well, I can’t be happy.
Emmanuel Wanyonyi, a 17-year-old Kenyan, celebrates his passage to the semi-finals on Wednesday
And it’s true: ten minutes earlier, Ben was punished by his rivals, Sedjati, Van Diepen and Ayouni, who overtook him on the home stretch and ruined his afternoon and his dreams.
-And what happened?
– I’m having trouble finishing. Who expected the American to shoot (little Brandon Miller, partner of the sensational Athing Mu, is a forerunner that this time he hides and comes out too, fifth in 1m47s29), but he didn’t. And then I realized the race was going slowly (54.46 seconds to the bell) and I got nervous and moved into the 600, but by then it was too late.
And so it was: squatting, the others had seized the stele.
-These are 1m43 guys, like Van Diepen. And There you go. And it’s a shame, because my last training sessions had been better than Tokyo 2020. But I don’t know, in the last 100 I got stuck.
With Álvaro de Arriba and Mariano García, they also follow Arop, Kinyamal and the surprising Emmanuel Wanyonyi, a 17-year-old Kenyan teenager, sensation of the season.
The second chapter, this next morning at 4 am in Spanish.
Sara Gallego strokes Spanish 400 hurdles record, but it’s not enough
-If I run in 53 seconds, I will go to the final – said Sara Gallego (21) the day before.
53 seconds is the record for Spain. Long, very long. And he’s right: the time gate closes at 53.72, Britton Wilson’s record, and Gallego has signed 54.49. And that’s not bad at all, since it’s the second best record for a Spanish hurdler (she herself holds the national record, in 54s34), but it’s not enough. Thus the Catalan, disciple of Àlex Codina in the CAR de Sant Cugat, is dismantled from a magnificent final which brings together Sydney McLaughlin, World record holder and Olympic champion at Tokyo 2020 and icon of these World Cups, Dalilah Muhammad, world champion in 2019, and Femke Bol, a Dutchwoman who has two braids and a girl’s face but flies in the last part of the event.