Manu Bermúdez, tenth, and Iván López, seventh, did not reach the minimum for the World Cup to be held in Budapest in August
Manu Bermúdez was not a prophet in his country. The Athleo walker didn’t have his day in the outright Spanish Road Walking Championship this Sunday, finishing the test in a discreet tenth place (2:42.03), far short of his ambitions. Iván López from Yecla, the other athlete from the Region who has a chance to win a medal, also had a bad day and finished seventh (2:38.28). The punishment was not left alone in its discreet times. Neither Bermúdez nor López made the minimum for the pre-selection for the World Championship in Budapest, which will be held August 19-27. They also failed to qualify for the European Cup on May 21 in Podebrady (Czech Republic),
The winner for the men was Álvaro Martín from Extremadura, who was crowned Spanish champion of the 35 kilometers, succeeding his training partner and European champion Miguel Ángel López. The man from Llano de Brujas was unable to participate due to an injury. Martín did not hesitate and came out with the determination to win the title without facing the opposition of his rivals. In complete solitude he was racking up miles, always aiming to get the minimum for the World Championships in Budapest set by World Athletics in 2:29.40.
Martín, the winner of the test, had to lower his personal best (2:29.59) to compete in the World Championships and he did it with ease and sufficiency, crossing the finish line as Spanish champion with a time of 2:28.16, the second best Spanish score in history, far from the spectacular national record of the hiker from Llano de Brujas Miguel Ángel López (2:25.58). The surprise came when a few seconds later Diego García Carrera crossed the finish line, who also guided Martín to the podium in the final 20 km European Championship. García Carrera, who debuted in the distance, had experienced at least two unforeseen events that forced him to stop during his march and finished his participation in Cieza with a time of 2:29.04, also a minimum for Budapest. The joy tripled with the bronze for Marc Tur confirmed with a time of 2:29.38, also signing the world minimum by just two seconds.
Among the women, María Pérez of Granada dominated, having been named champion of Spain in the specialty in both 2021 and 2022 in the only two national championships to be held over this distance. This Sunday he faced the test with the aim of testing himself for the big competitions of the year. Always alone and with very fast partials in the intermediate steps, he won with a time of 2:41.38, two and a half minutes off his record in Spain (2:39.16), which is also the third best mark of all time at the national level world. In addition, this record achieved in Cieza is the second best world record of the year.
The greatest joy for the walkers of the Region came in the master category, with the gold in M45 for the athlete of CA Torre Pacheco Fernando Zamora (3:49.34) and with the silver of Daniel López in M40, of UCAM Athleo Cieza (3 :04.42).
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
