Budapest hosts a star-studded World Athletics Championships

40 years have passed since the most important decision in the history of athletics, from the moment in which the great sport of the Olympic Games went from being a purely amateur activity to becoming a professional one. An initiative born from the romantic Adriaan Paulen, president of the international federation, and promoted by his successor in office, Primo Nebiolo, a businessman from the Italian high society.

They created the first World Athletics Championships in Helsinki (1983), Josep Marín’s historic silver in the 50km walk.that of Carl Lewis’ three golds (100m, 4x100m and long), made Marita Koch the best sprinter in the GDR Germany, with Jarmila Kratochvilová setting the 400m world record, Edwin Moses winning the 400m hurdles and Pravda highlights Sergey Bubka’s pole vault victory under the USSR flag.

After 40 years, the World Cup landed in Budapest (August 19-27) as a success story with more than 16,000 participating athletes, 1,822 medals, 692 golds and one king above all, Usain Bolt. The Jamaican retired in 2017 and has been waiting for his successor ever since.

It could be Mondo Duplantis, who at 23 years old erased Bubka’s pole vault records and you already know what it’s like to be an Olympic, world and European champion. He will be in the Hungarian capital with other phenomena of the stature of Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Yulimar Rojas, Noah Lyles, Karsten Warholm, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Faith Kipyegon, Joshua Cheptegei, Ryan Crouser or Sifan Hassan.

mostly women

And Spain, which in these 40 years has added 41 medals, seven gold (Valentí Massana, Chuso García Bragado, Martín Fiz, Abel Antón (2), Niurka Montalvo and Miguel Ángel López). includes an ambitious team of 58 athletes -for the first time with more representation of women (31) than men (27)– with the aim of achieving medals that allow a year to dream of the Games in Paris 2024. The main assets are María Pérez (20 and 35km walk) and Mo Katir (1,500m and 5,000m).

On the contrary, there will be sensitive casualties such as hurdler Asier Martínez (world bronze in Oregon 2022)Ana Peleteiro (bronze in Tokyo 2020) or Mariano García (European gold and indoor world champion in 2022).

In the case of María Pérez, she will come to the event as the current 35km world record holder -she achieved it in May of this year at the Podebrady European Championship-. On his part, Mo Katir is another great national asset to get a medal -he did it last year with a bronze in Oregon- and he will do it twice, as the federation agreed to his request to double up and compete in the 1,500m and 5,000m -something the RFEA does not want to focus on all medal options in one event-.

The Murcian will have as a great rival the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsenbut this season he has already shown that he can run very fast (3’28”89 for 1,500m to 12’45”01 for 5,000m, a new European record) and his chances of being on the podium are seriously

First medal options in 20 km

The World Cup starts this Saturday (8:50 am, Teledeporte) with the men’s 20km walk, a test where Spain can dream of a medal if Álvaro Martín has a good day. The man from Extremadura is the strongest walker in the team -fourth at the Tokyo 2020 Games- and comes to the event as the current European champion and with the sixth best world record of the year. Chinese Jun Zhang, Japanese Koki Ikeda and Ecuadorian David Hurtado will be his main rivals. Diego García Carrera and Alberto Amezcua will also be at the event, both with extensive experience in major championships.

On Sunday it is the turn of the women’s event, with the premiere of María Pérez, the only Spanish world record holder. The woman from Granada will face the 20km as the leader of the year and will not have the technical problems she has suffered in recent years. Pérez is going all out in the two march distances (20 and 35km) and her main rival in both events is the defending champion, the Peruvian Kimberly García León.