The best marathon runners in Spain have signed up for San Silvestre Vallecana

This Sunday, December 31, some of the main characters of the women’s national marathon will compete in the final race of the year: the Nationale-Nederlanden San Silvestre Vallecana International 2023.

He women’s marathon Spain is experiencing one of the brightest moments in its history, a fact proven this year with new national records, massive distance debuts and a good list of Olympic minimums that have already secured a ticket for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games . .

The list starts with Laura Luengo, who made an impressive debut at the Valencia marathon in 2:25:35. Thus, the woman from Extremadura not only achieved the Olympic minimum for Paris 2024, her main goal, but also slipped to the third step of the national classification at all times. The national half marathon record holder and champion of Spain at this distance he reached Vallecana with a personal best of 10K of 31:50, reached in June of this year in Madrid.

In its part, Fatima Azzahara Ouhaddou In Valencia she became the second best Spaniard in history, a few seconds faster than Laura Luengo (2:25:30). Ouhaddou put an end to a dream year, where he took a creditable fourth place in the Rotterdam Marathon – which gave him olympic minimum-, a national half marathon bronze medalist and among the best marathon runners in history. He will try to improve on his best 10K mark, 32:06, set this year in Madrid.

The former national record holder is now fourth in the national marathon rankings, Marta Galianywho had the honor of being the first to break that historic record of Ana Isabel Alonso, set in 1995. The athlete from Tarragona, who is an Olympian at the Tokyo Games held in 2021, will debut in San Silvestre Vallecana and will strive to lower his personal best in the 10K he achieved in Barcelona with 32:29.

And from a debutante to a veteran who never ceases to amaze us with his performance. The Cantabrian Irene Pelayo At the age of 43, he managed to become the oldest absolute national champion in any Olympic athletics event, in the Zaragoza Marathon. This December he completed a dream year with an Olympic minimum for Paris, a personal record (2:26:40) and the sixth best mark in our history. What better way to end the year than at Vallecana, where we saw him run the fastest, 32:46, in 2019.

Laura Mendez completes this sumptuous quintet. Far from the mark of his teammates, the Extremaduran athlete showed his best part in the 10K, a distance where he won the national championship in 2022, as well as in the half marathon, finishing second in the Spanish Championships held in Santander after Laura Luengo. This year he ran 31:32 in Madrid, so we can consider him as one of the favorites to win the best national position in the Nationale-Nederlanden San Silvestre Vallecana Internacional.

A true tribute to our marathon and our athletics that we will experience in the streets of Madrid. And this is just the beginning, because this year the Nationale-Nederlanden San Silvestre Vallecana promises us to dream of records. Will the national career best mark set by Marta Domínguez in 2003 (31:35) fall?

We will find out next December 31 from 7:55 p.mwhen the starting gun sounds.