Spain is all in at the European Team Walking Championships

The Spanish athletics team will face the European Team Walking Championships in Podebrady (Czech Republic) with an expedition of guarantees made up of twenty-two athletes (11 women and 11 men), including the current 35 km continental champion Álvaro Martín, the European runner-up Raquel Martínez and the European distance record holder María Perez.

Álvaro Martín, double European champion in 20 kilometers, will compete in 35 kma distance that debuts in this team championship in the men’s category after fourteen editions with 50 in the program.

The man from Extremadura does it as the champion of Spain, as he took the victory on February 26 in Cieza (Murcia) with 2h28:16the second Spanish brand in history and the best of the participants in Podebrady in 2023. A few days ago, in Córdoba, he proved his great form with the 20 km national title, completing the unprecedented national double since 2015, with Miguel Angel Lopez.

The Murcian, Spanish record holder and current 35 km European champion, will also share a team in Podebrady with his training partner, as they are both under the command of José Antonio Carrillo.

Miguel Ángel López made the jump to 35 km in 2022 and did it in a big waywho beat the Spanish record twice until it left 2h25:58 and clinched his second continental title in Munich eight years after the first.

In recent months, Miguel Ángel López has suffered injuries from which he has recovered, and will be looking for his fifth team title at the European Championship in Podebrady after four wins at 20 kilometers.

The 35 km team also consists of two international finalists in the last two seasons: Manuel Bermúdez, fourth in Europe at the distance at Munich 2022, and Marc Tur, fourth Olympian at 50 km in Tokyo, and bronze at the Spanish Championship in Cieza with 2h29:38.

The third male continental medalist to compete in Podebrady is Diego García Carrera from Madrid, European silver in 2018 and bronze in 2022 in the 20 km walk. Although this 2023 he successfully made his first race at 35 km, as national silver in Cieza with the third Spanish mark ever (2h29:04), in the Czech Republic he will defend the colors of Spain at his favorite distance, the 20 km.

García Carrera leads a group of guarantees that includes the fourth classified in the last European Championship, Alberto Amezcua, the silver medalist in the last Spanish Championship, Paul McGrath, and the national under-23 champion Álvaro López.

GOOD CHOICE WOMAN

Among the women, the Spanish quartet at 35 kilometers has two of the best European walkers. 35 km continental record holder María Pérez (2h39:16) arrived in top form after breaking her own 20 km Spanish record in Córdoba with 2h25:30, the best world mark of the year.

The other great national reference in the distance is the European runner-up over 35 kilometers Raquel González, who comes after winning silver in the National 20-kilometer event in Córdoba and seeks to continue confirming herself as a continental reference in the distance.

The team is completed by the runner-up in Spain over 35 km Cristina Montesinos (with 2h50:11, the fourth Spanish mark in history) and the young Paula Juárez, fifth in the Spanish 35 km Championship with 2h56:47 , the ninth Spanish mark ever at the age of twenty-two.

At 20 kilometers, Mar Juárez led Spain, European finalist at 35 kilometers last summer. She was joined by double national medalist of 20 and 35 km Antía Chamosa and the Spanish sub-23 champion of 20 km Lucía Redondo, as well as Carmen Escariz, seventh in the 20 km National.

Podebrady has been a recurring venue in recent years of the competition and where Spain retains fond memories. It hosted what was then known as the European Cup in 2017, with the men’s and women’s absolute 20 km titles for Spain and a women’s 10 km sub20 victory, along with an absolute men’s bronze in the 50 km.

Four years later, now as the European Team Walking Championship, Spain won the 20 km absolute titles for men and women and 10 km in the men’s sub20 10 km, and the men’s 50 km absolute bronze.

Among the big international names taking part are Swedish Perseus Karlström, European 20 km runner-up; the Italian Francesco Fortunato, recent winner of the Madrid Grand Prix; the Italian Massimo Stano, Olympic champion of the 20 kilometer walk; or the Greek Antigoni Ntrismpioti, double European champion of 20 and 35.

In total, 220 athletes (115 men and 105 women) from twenty-two countries traveled to the Czech city.