Guerrero, García y Ben destacan en la Copa Mundial de Nankín
The start of the athletics world in the indoor track playing in Nanjing (China) brought good news for Spanish athletics that put Mariano García, Adrián Ben, and Esther Guerrero as their first finalists, all in the 1,500 meters.
The National Middle and showed the competitive level in the debut of the World Cup event, named short athlete and made complete finalists, with García and Guerrero directly, and with a brave Ben who had to wait in the «hot seat» to verify that his time was the fastest and that he could fight for the medals.
The first finalist of the Spanish team was the merit of the veteran Esther Guerrero. From Gerona, the team captain, was classified for her second «indoor» World Cup and did this with solvency, finishing her third series with a time of 4: 09.90, the third fastest of the finalists on Sunday.
«I am happy, I felt very good. I think the race went well for me because I was going, they tried to pass, and, at one point, there were two laps and I had a lot of strength.
And the full house in the distance was confirmed by the two male representatives, Adrián Ben and Mariano García, despite the difficulty they faced to get into the medal fight, as only the top two of each series and only another athlete for the Times.
This condition was what the Galician ticket offered, brave in the first series, the fastest of the day. The Spaniards wanted to take the initiative and lead in the final laps and fought until the last stretch for one of the direct positions, which slipped away by a small margin.
The nursery athlete achieved a personal best with 3: 36.95 to finish third, two hundredths behind the American Samuel Prakel in second place and 35 behind the series winner, the Briton Neil Gourley. From there, he had to wait for three more races to know his fate, but none were faster, and finally, the suspense had a happy ending, and he could join a good Mariano García.
The Murcian, who stayed out of the 800 meters in Europe two weeks ago, showed a good level in his slow series, where he was the best. The world champion in the 800 meters on the indoor track in 2022 dominated with authority and won with a time of 4: 02.68.
«At the 800 mark, almost 1000, I pushed forward and placed in second or third place where I stood without changing much and saved bullets for the last lap, which was so crazy. I used my speed and finished strong. We hope to enjoy the Spanish final against Jakob (.»
Meanwhile, Adrián Ben was «very pleased» because he made it to the final after having a «slight slowdown» when he saw that he missed the top two, although with the joy of running «the best race» in the 1,500 with a personal best and «a reward for courage.»
«I didn’t look at any time, I ran easily, calmly, and tried to spend the energy I had when the race was fast. The bad part came when the American saw me absent 100 meters and I completely stopped and thought my race was over.»
There was also good news in the 800 meters, where there was another full house, although in this case moving on to the semifinals, thanks to Lorea Ibarzabal, who advanced as the third in her series and with a «Happy Hundred,» as she herself acknowledged, of advantage over the fourth, young Elvin José and Veteran. All were classified directly.
The semifinals also saw the young sprinter Guillem Crespí, who made the first cut in the 60 meters (6.67), but couldn’t make it to the final (6.64), while Manuel Guijarro, the first Spaniard to compete in Nanjing, and Marcos Ruiz, dropped in the first change in 400 Mitri.
The first day of the World Cup crowned the first champions of the schedule. Italian Andy Díaz won in the triple jump with the best mark of the year (17.80 m), South Korea’s Woo in the high jump (2.31 m), Britain’s Jeremiah Azu in the 60 m (6.49), Canada’s Sarah Metton in the shot put (20.48 m), and Saga Finenny Vâninenen Penthlon.
FUENTE
