on the banks of the Danube, The National Athletics Center in Budapest will host 19-27 August at a high-temperature event where Spain participated with a total of 60 athletes (27 men and 33 women), five of which would ‘double the event’ (Álvaro Martín and María Pérez) between the Outdoor Athletics World Championships 20 and 35 km walk, Mohamed Katir in the 1,500 and 5,000, Jaël Bestué in the 100 and 200 meters plus the short relay and longitude and María Vicente in the trio).
Considering that the first European country in the medal table at Eugene last year was Poland with just one gold and four medals (Spain wins bronze in Mohamed Katir 1,500 and Asier Martínez 110 hurdles), the truth is that options for stepping onto the podium are more than plentiful, with only six tests concentrating (20 and 50km walks for men and women, plus ‘milqui’ and 5,000 masculine). .
20km walk
In chronological order, The men’s 20km march will open the World Cups at 8.50am on Saturday, 19 with the participation of Álvaro Martín from Extremadura. (gold at the last two European Championships), Diego García of Madrid (continental bronze in 2022 and silver in 2018), young Paul McGrath (European champion in 23) and Spanish champion Luis Alberto Amezcua in 2022.
Without forgetting Diego Garcia, The great medal choice in this test is Martín. Coming from Llerena, ready to take a step around the world After proving to be the best in this test on the Old Continent, and starting with 1h:18.49, China’s Jun Zhang (1h:17.38) with the sixth best grade of the year after Brazilian Caio Bonfim (1h:18.29), Japan’s Koki Izeda (1h:1h): 18.36), Ecuadorian David Hurtado (1s:18.45) and Australia’s Declan Tingay (1s:18.46). In any case, perhaps the most dangerous will be the current Italian Olympic champion Massimo Stano (1h:20.07 this year) and the champion of the last two World Cup editions, the Japanese Toshikazu Yamanishi (1h:20.58 in 2023).
The next day, young Antía Chamosa will be on the women’s 20km walk, which will start at 7.10am. with María Pérez from Granada, the 20km walking champion of the last two European races and fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, only eight percent of the bronze (Chinese Liu Hong).
Jacinto Garzón’s student got the best mark of the year, which is also his personal record (1:25:30)followed by world champion Kimberly García León (Peru, 1h:26.40) and 2017 world champion Jiayu Yang (China, 1h:26.41). Chinese veteran Hong Liu (gold at the 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2019 World Cups), current Italian Olympic champion Antonella Palmisano and Colombian Sandra Lorena Arenas (silver at the Tokyo Games) should also be considered.
35km walk
María Pérez is also aiming for the maximum in the 35-kilometer walk, which will take place on Thursday, 24th at 7:00 am. Additionally, World Athletics has confirmed the brand new world record it set with 2h:37.15 last May in Podebrady, Czech Republic. The marching attack, carried out by the IOC and World Athletics by ‘killing’ the iconic 50km test, makes it easy for experts at 20km distances to cover or combine.
Granada won’t be easy either in the long test of the march against the current champion, the aforementioned Kimberly García León. it also has the second best score of all time with 2h:35.44. You should also take into account the Polish Katarzyna Zdzieblo (silver in past World Cups) and the Chinese Shijie Queyang (bronze in 2022), Xueying Bai and Maocuo Li. Former Barcelona veteran Raquel González (fifth in the last World Cup and eighth of the year) and young Cristina Montesinos (ninth) in a privileged position.
Spain will have two bullets on paper Men’s 35 kilometers with Álvaro Martín (doubles) and current European champion Miguel Ángel López of Murcia (The squad was completed by Marc Tur, who finished fourth in the 50 kilometers at the Tokyo Games). The man from Extremadura came in with 2h:35.35, third best of the season, behind China’s Xianhong He and Japan’s Tomohiro Noda. Current Italian champion Massimo Stano (unmarked this year), Japanese runner-up Masatora Kawano and Swedish bronze Perseus Karlström in the top 35 of 2023 are also on the entry list.
1,500 and ‘twice’ Katir
The men’s ‘milqui’ is the fetish track test of Spanish athletics with a total of six medals at World Cups. (One silver from José Luis González, two from Fermín Cacho, two bronze from Reyes Estévez and Mohammed Mule Fourth in Eugene last year with Mario García Romo from Salamanca. Both will be in the three and three quarter laps at the National Athletics Center in Budapest, alongside Jakob Ingebrigtsen, with Adel Mechaal, who won the silver medal in the 3,000m at the European arenas).
The Norwegian is an almost insurmountable obstacle to gold, but in Eugene he was overcome by the missing Englishman Jake Wightman.. The Scandinavian continues to follow the universal record of Moroccan El Guerrouj, coming in with the year’s best mark and fourth in history (3:27.14) for the adopted Muleño’s massive 3:28.89. Also watch out for training partner Mario García Romo (3:29.18), American Yared Nuguse and Kenyan Abel Kipsang and Timothy Cheruiyot.
Katir will ‘double up’ in Budapest and face the current universal and European champion Ingebrigtsen in the 5,000m.With Ethiopian Aregawi, Gebrhiwet and Kejelcha, Ugandan genius Joshua Cheptegei or Kenyan Jacob Kprop (silver in Eugene), the list of contenders stretches out, but without forgetting that the recently nationalized Spaniard Thierry Ndikumwenayo is the 12th and fourth Spaniard of the year in history with 12:55.47.
Talk about more real medal options Almost reckless without Ana Peleteiro, Orlando Ortega, Asier Martínez or Eusebio Cáceres, but we must not forget the options for the women’s 4×100 relay despite the absence of Maribel Pérez (they finished fifth at the Eugene World Cup) or Galician Adri Ben in the 800m, a test where the current European indoor champion is. She finished fifth at the Tokyo Games and sixth at the World Cup in Qatar. Or the Catalan Jaime Guerra, who soared with a personal record of 8.14 metres, though he still lacks a few tens of centimeters to rank among the greatest.