On August 28, 1999, it was very hot in Seville. 25 years later, it is still very hot. Time seems to have stopped at the La Cartuja Stadium. Only to the left of its south tunnel can you see any construction work going on. Abel Antón poses right in front of that same south tunnel through which 25 years ago he entered a stadium that was the scene of the World Athletics Championships. Antón won the gold medal in the marathon at that World Championships, where figures such as the Americans Maurice Green, Marion Jones and Michael Johnson also shone. The Texan broke the world record for the 400 metres just two days before Abel Antón’s feat. It was also the World Championship of Niurka Montalvo, Iván Pedroso and Yago Lamela.
“It’s been 25 years and I’m still excited. It was a big thing. I had won gold at the World Championships in Berlin in 1997, but this victory was at home. I remember a huge explosion when I entered the stadium,” recalls the Spanish champion, who at 61 years old looks very healthy. He still runs about 20 races a year and trains six days a week. “But I only do 10 or 15 kilometres a day. For someone who has run as much as I have, it’s a walk in the park. If I don’t run, I feel like I’m missing something,” he explains while travelling on a panoramic bus, courtesy of the company City Sightseeing, the essential part of the journey that led him to glory through the streets and avenues of Seville.
“I was a very tactical athlete. I studied my rivals a lot. At that time we beat the Africans in the marathon. They suffered with tactical races and did not do things well in aspects such as hydration. Now everything has changed. I was the last white athlete to win the Berlin marathon,” explains the Soria native before such a significant anniversary. He is very well known in the capital of Andalusia. Those over 40 remember his triumph in Seville. “I take a lot of photos when I come to the Fair,” he proclaims.
📆August 28, 1999!
🎉This Wednesday marks 25 years since the World Athletics Championships.
The greatest achievement of my sporting career and without a doubt the most special to be able to achieve it in my country with my people! 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/XkKDYX6otW
— Abel Antón (@AbelAntonRuning) August 27, 2024
“In Berlin the reference was Martín Fiz, but in Seville it was me. I had prepared myself very well, alternating heat training in Soria with a few days of training in the Mediterranean. I was doing 200 kilometres a week at the time. But two weeks before I suffered a contracture in my hamstrings and I was very scared,” he recalls. “Right at this entrance to the María Luisa Park I decided that I had to act. There was a Japanese, Sato, ahead of me, but I controlled him. We were a group with the Italians and the Ethiopians behind the Japanese and we began to change the pace,” says Antón, who still remembers meter by meter the most important event of his career.
Starting from the Maria Luisa Park, the race reached its decisive moment. Antón, a great strategist, carried out the so-called “water attack” to overtake his great sporting rival until then, the Italian Vincenzo Modica. Before that, he had already dispatched the Kenyan Simon Biwott. “It was terribly hot and there were hydration stations every two kilometres. At the height of the Torre del Oro I overtook Modica and hydrated myself. I changed pace and he tried to follow me without being able to drink water. I left him behind,” he recalls.
It was so hot that day in Seville that the street thermometers were turned off so as not to overwhelm the marathon runners when they saw the prevailing temperatures. From that moment on, Antón flew. “I had forgotten about my discomfort and started running at 2.45 minutes per kilometre. Sato, the Japanese, was running at three per kilometre. I caught up with him and he lasted 200 metres next to me. Then I left him. It was the best moment of my life because I knew I was going to win,” he proclaims. It was just before the 40th kilometre.
Then came the explosion at La Cartuja Stadium, the doubts at the entrance to the tunnel with a full house of 65,000 people and 200,000 Sevillians in the streets on August 28th from six in the afternoon. Antón had also won gold at the 1997 World Championships in Berlin. His record is splendid, although he lacked the Olympic medal. “I went to Sydney 2000, but I wasn’t prepared and I felt it.” Words from the last athlete who led the marathon before the African dominance. 25 years later, Seville still takes notice of a man from Soria who became an idol.
You can follow EL PAÍS Sports on Facebook and Xor sign up here to receive our newsletter.
