Stars of the morning in order of appearance on the scene of the Gallur pavilion, in Madrid, the track of world and also Spanish records:
Óscar Husillos, 29 years old, 45.58s, 400m. Spain record. Second best European mark of the year after the 45.31s of the world record holder for hurdles, Karsten Warholm. The second youth, he ironically says, of the Astudillo express, the sprinter who five years ago, at the Birmingham World Cup on the indoor track, was able to drop 45s in a final from which he was disqualified due to a bad footfall after have been proclaimed champion. In two weeks the European Championship in Istanbul awaits him, the search for a second continental title after the triumph of 2021 and second place in 2019. “In two weeks I will do whatever it takes,” says the athlete from Palencia, who does not want to say if he feels as good or better than in Birmingham, but very happy because when he visits his friend Adrián Ben, the 800m Olympic finalist, in Viveiro, people ask him if he is the same age. “And I’m four years older… So that’s what I’ve been doing. I only know that my coach, Luis Ángel Caballero, has everything very well planned and that I don’t double sessions or anything”. And when Jorge González Amo, apostle and missionary of the middle distance, the aristocracy of athletics, without a doubt, asks him when he will switch to the 800m, to a test with the bell ringing, Husillos answers that when he loses speed he will retire. “I’m not going from super to diesel,” he jokes.
Jordan Díaz, 21 years old, 17.59m, triple jump. Spain record. Best world brand of the year. The previous one, 17.49m, was also his, jumped on February 11 by the prodigious jumper of Cuban origin who until 2024 will not be able to compete internationally as a Spaniard. He achieves it in a contest without rivals and with an average career, of only 12 steps (and not the 18 or 20 of the great days), which translates into the speed of entry into the table (9.90 meters per second) it fades and barely pushes in the third boat, the final jump. Díaz, with Iván Pedroso, his coach and caretaker in the band directing him, normally acted alone and with a dropper “You don’t have to force it,” says Pedroso. “It suffers after each jump.” He jumped five times. He made two very long nulls and three valid jumps, the three, 17.50m, 17.58 and 17.59m, would have been the best world championships of the year. Such is the value, technical capacity and talent of the athlete from Havana who arrived in Guadalajara in the summer of 2021, where he joined Iván Pedroso’s group in which the star is still Yulimar Rojas, Olympic champion and world record holder.
Enrique Llopis, 23 years old, 7.48s, 60m hurdles. Best European brand of the year, and third in the world (the best, 7.38s from the world record holder Grant Holloway). And a national record equaled with Orlando Ortega, the Olympic runner-up from Rio de Janeiro who this year has not competed indoors. His record, anything but unexpected for his coach, Toni Puig, returns him to the center of Spanish hopes in a tireless swing with his classmate, and friend, Asier Martínez, the Navarrese hurdler who outdoors, in the 110 meters , is an Olympic finalist, world medalist and European champion. “That’s how the billboards are,” says Llopis, from Gandía. “You touch one and you leave the race. I wish Asier a lot of encouragement because he is a great competitor ”. From the outset, Llopis, bigger, more corpulent, with more legs, not yet as muscularly defined, more prone to injuries, stood out for his precocity and at the age of 19 he made his debut at the Glasgow European Indoors. Then Asier Martínez gave the quality leap before. Now, at least, he has been matched by Llopis, who will have the opportunity in Istanbul to obtain his first European gold. “I prefer not to think about what awaits me in Istanbul. I just want to go out like here, to enjoy it. This is how I perform best, without putting pressure on myself. Enjoying everything comes out ”, says the Valencian hurdler. “Equaling something by Orlando Ortega seemed to me something that was very far away. He was training very well, but the race of my life came out for me ”.
“From the training sessions he has done, from the data we have on his fence steps, from everything, we knew that he was at 7.50s or less,” explains Puig, perhaps the happiest man, if not in the world, who perhaps also, at least in Gallur. The Valencian coach had no place in his body, not only because of his hurdler but also because of his work as head of the 4 x 400m relay after the 400m final, in which, after Husillos’ 45.58s, another athlete, the Asturian Iñaki Cañal, 25, fell below 46s for the first time (45.89s) and Manuel Guijarro from Villarrobledo from La Mancha came close to almost burning out (46.07s), the three of them ahead of Lucas Búa and the two great promises David García Zurita, a finalist at the age of 17, and Markel Fernández, a Biscayan from Sopela, 20, are already frightening due to their self-confidence and quality. In Istanbul they will fight for gold in the relay after the 2019 silver in Glasgow .
If Friday and Saturday, Gallur was the kingdom of the extraordinary feats of the middle-distance runner Adel Mechaal, champion of 3,000m after two races against the clock below 7m 50s, Sunday morning was also that of the grand final of 800m, that of the extraordinary generosity of the world indoor and European outdoor champion Mariano García, and that of the certain athletic resurrection of Saúl Ordóñez and Javier Mirón. Before starting the test, already in front of the starting block, the athlete from Cuevas de Reyllo who won the Boston 800m two weeks ago (1m 45.26s, the best world record of the year at the time), distributes water to Mirón and Ordóñez, who they drink from the bottle with which he wets his arms and neck, as in summer, and he also drinks. Later, he decides to run as he likes, front runner, at tremendous speed (24.51s the 200m; 50.53s, the 400m; 1m 17.62s, the 600m and the ringing of the bell, and behind him, as with a lasso, Ordóñez, the Birmingham 2018 world runner-up and record holder national outdoor, who overcomes his personal crisis at the age of 28 by cutting his hair with faded temples and changing coaches, leaving Uriel Reguero, his lifelong coach in Valladolid (and also the coach of Lorea Ibarzabal, 800m champion , and Marta García, runner-up in the 3,000m and 1,500m) to train with Llorenç Solbes from Alicante, with whom he spends the winter in Doha, in Qatar. In an agonizing sprint that he wins by throwing himself forward until he falls on the line.Injured and without federative aid in his town.He finishes third, with 1m 45.98s.Minimum for the European Championship in Istanbul.
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