Marta García added the first medal for Spain at the European Championships in Rome by achieving bronze in the 5,000 with a new Spanish record, 14:44.04.
Marta García, 26 years old, is confirming her progression at the key moment of her career, in the final of the 5,000 at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, with a perfect race.
The Spanish athlete, pupil of the German Thomas Dreissigacker, maintained the race pace for much of the race until with one kilometer left, the Italian Nadie Battocletti and the Norwegian Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal left alone. Between the two of them, the one who reached the final stretch the most was Battocletti, who changed the pace in the last straight and sprinted to reach the finish line alone with 14:35.29, three seconds less than the Norwegian.
Marta García, from behind, faced the last meters in a tough fight with the Dutch Maureen Koster and the Finnish Nathalie Blomqvist, alternating between third and fifth position. In the last straight, by hundredths of a second, the Spaniard was the fastest, stopping the clock at 14:44.04, ahead of Koster (14:44.46) and Blomqvist (14:44.72).
Marta García’s time allowed the Palencia-based Leonese to beat the historic record of 5,000 that Julia Vaquero had held since 1996 with 14:44.95. The other Spaniard in competition, the young woman from Huelva María Forero, 21 years old, was thirteenth with 15:19.69, a sub’23 national record.
The misfortune of Laura García-Caro
Laura García-Caro was left without bronze in the 20 kilometer walk when she was surpassed right at the finish line by the Ukrainian Lyudmila Olyanovska, in a race dominated by the Olympic champion, the Italian Antonella Palmisano. García-Caro, 29 years old, arrived at the European Championship with the best time of the year on the continent (1h27:19) and, as one of the favorites, she had a very serious race, always among the first positions, but was left without the deserved prize in the last meter of the test.
The Huelva native, a pupil of José Antonio Quintana, received a warning before the halfway point of the test, but was able to maintain the pace and tactics without committing any more fouls. Even so, she arrived with very little strength and in the last meters, when she already had the Spanish flag around her neck, she found herself overtaken by Olyanovska, even when she had raised her arm in a sign of victory. The time was the same for both athletes: 1h28:48. By then, ahead of her, she was already celebrating her victory at the Antonella Palmisano stadium, who dominated the race from the beginning and confirmed her favoritism with an indisputable victory with a time of 1h28:09.
“I’m disappointed to have lost that bronze at the last moment. In the 300 and 200 I was looking back, I was at a pretty good pace, in the 100 I saw her far away and I pushed as hard as I could. I thought I wouldn’t It caught me and it caught me. I’m left with the fact that after a difficult year I’m back,” said Laura García-Caro, after the race. Barcelona’s Cristina Montesinos, trained by Valentí Massana, stayed in the main group until halfway through the race and in the end she crossed the finish line in sixth position with 1:29:07. The third Spaniard in competition, also from Barcelona Raquel González, could not repeat the continental runners-up position in Munich 2022. On this occasion she finished ninth with 1h30:05.
2024-06-07 21:27:51
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