The Argentine runner Daiana Ocampo performed a sporting feat this Sunday at the end of Hamburg marathon in seventh position with a time of 2h26:24, being the only non-African athlete in the top ten and securing his place for Olympic Games in Paris.
“I hurt from the effort… but very happy,” the long-distance runner told the Clarín newspaper.
Ocampo, 33 years old, shaved almost a minute off his personal record, achieved Seville last February, and met the minimum requirement of World Athletics to qualify for this summer’s Games, where he will go with his compatriot Florence Borelli.
“I feel very good physically… and that’s why I decided to run a marathon again with very little recovery time. I know it’s not the most advisable but the qualification period ends at the end of April and the Hamburg is my last chance”, he said.
Ocampo, who lives in the province of Buenos Aires, became the second fastest marathon runner in his country’s history, surpassed only by Borelli, who holds the national and South American record for the distance with 2:24:18.
“I think these emotions cannot be described in words, I always believe in myself to achieve this goal,” wrote the long-distance runner on his Instagram account. “Things don’t always go as planned and some of those moments were hard hits, the high performance athlete works so hard and tirelessly, we climb high on expectations and when the result is not taken, the falls seem to hurt more.”
Ocampo has been chasing the Olympic dream since Tokyo 2020, where he failed to qualify due to the pandemic and a series of misfortunes that prevented him from performing at his best.
In 2023, he suffered a knee injury that kept him out of work for several months, but then he began his recovery and training in Cachi, Salta province, high up in the Calchaquíes valleys in northwestern Argentina. , where he practiced almost alone.
“[el Maratón de Hamburgo] “It will always remain in my heart like the day I showed what I can do, I had the ticket in my pocket, I won it and how much it cost me to win it,” the athlete wrote.
The Hamburg Marathon is one of the fastest in Europe. The winner of this edition is Kenyan Irene Cheptaiworld cross country champion in 2017, who made one of the fastest debuts in history with 02h18:22.
Among the men, the Kenyan Bernard Koech He won in the eighth best time of the year (2h04:24) and became the first athlete to defend his title in Hamburg after the Spaniard Julio Rey in 2006.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Jason Root, a professional writer working with Today Times Live, the premier news website. I specialize in sports writing, covering the biggest stories in the world of athletics. With an eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, I provide engaging and informative articles that capture the key elements of any event or issue. My work has been featured on numerous respected websites and publications around the world.
