Earlier this Sunday morning, the men’s marathon of the World Athletics Championships took place on the streets of Budapest with the victory of Uganda’s Victor Kiplangat (2 hours:08:53), with the three Spaniards grouped close together in position and time.
Newcomer Tariku Novales was the best, placing twenty-first with 2:12:39.He is 20 seconds ahead of Ayad Lamdassem (22nd), while Catalan Ibrahim Chakir is in the twenty-fourth place with 2 hours:13.44. Despite some physical problems at the end of the test, all three were satisfied.
After finishing fifth at the Tokyo Games, this time Lamdassem ‘touched’ has arrived. “It was a very tough race because we went out to change” and unfortunately for the past four weeks I have been having problems with my quadriceps. I tried to hold out as long as possible with the lead group up to the 30km, but from then on I felt a lot of pain in my quadriceps,” said the Lleida-based long-distance runner.
“At least I tried to finish the marathon because I’ve retired from two World Cups. and it had to end. I’m in the top 20 (it was actually 22nd) and this is a very good place for me because people have run super fast over all distances at these World Championships. I want to congratulate my teammates Álvaro (Martín) and María (Pérez) on their gold medals and wish Ouassim (Oumaiz) and (Mohamed) Katir every success in the 5,000m this afternoon”, he joined the team.
The best of the three was rookie Novales. “It was a very high level race. as long as the big stars are missing. It’s an atrocity committed by humans. I thought many more would die. I managed to do my own race and went for a long time just because I didn’t want to go into the changes. Except for some mishaps, I think I’m fine,” he said after a grand gesture to RFEA’s historic physical therapist Ángel Bassas, who died in an accident in New Zealand last February with his son, Carlos.
“That’s not an excuse, I wouldn’t have lost even 10 seconds there. From the 27th I felt a little uncomfortable with the adductor and had to slow down a bit. The position is indifferent to me. With the brutal level It’s there, by having a good race you are more or less behind depending on your opponents you can stay. I must be very happy with the position and how I am managing the career“Added the athlete, who was born in Ethiopia and was adopted as a child in Spain.
Finally, Emphasizing that his feelings are good, Çakır said, “At first, I got carried away with emotions. one of my great feelings. I kept up with the pace of the front group and was doing pretty well almost halfway through. Then I had some problems with the hamstrings and quadriceps”, signaled the FC Barcelona athlete.
“I had some pain in the end but hey, I must be pretty happy to be the first. As for the position, we came looking for a under 2016 player but hey, we were close. It was pretty tough, and debuting at #24 isn’t bad at all. I am very happy”, stressed the Spanish-Moroccan actor.