De Arriba and Mariano advance in 800 and Sara Gallego brushed her record

Álvaro de Arriba, Mariano García accessed the semifinals by places and Adri Ben was eliminated

Sara Gallego could not qualify for the 400m hurdles final, but she was 15 hundredths of her Spanish record

The four Spanish athletes who participated in the day on Wednesday of the Outdoor Athletics World Championships that are taking place in Eugene had a remarkable performance, although only two of them managed to pass the round.

They obtained the ticket for the penultimate round of 800 the national champion Álvaro de Arriba and the world indoor champion Mariano García while the Olympic and world finalist Adri Ben did not pass by very little.

For its part, Catalan Sara Gallego I was looking for an impossible mission in 400 fences and was about to beat his new record for Spain again. The Catalan is huge at 21 years old!

Two of three in 800

The first of the three rounds of the men’s 800 meters was exciting, with an enormous equality in the six series and the four First defenestrated: Still champion Donavan Brazier was seventh in the second heat far off his best form with 1:46.72the also American Bryce Hoppel (bronze in the Indoor World Cup in Belgrade) was fourth with 1:46.98 and the British Max Burgin did not even make an appearance.

The Spanish champion Álvaro de Arriba ran the slowest series (56.80 while passing the 400) and it was already clear to me in the last corner that anything other than being among the top three would mean staying out of the final as they had no chance of fighting for the six times they picked up.

And he was almost out when he received a touch at the entrance of the straight and was forced to open up, but the man from Salamanca reacted in a big way and he brought out all his rage to secure third place with 1:49.30surpassing by six hundredths the Ethiopian champion Ermias Girma (17 years old) who was eliminated.

Definitely the best impression of the three Spaniards was offered by Mariano Garcia. The brand-new indoor world champion last winter in Belgrade has been slow this summer in setting it up and had by far his best (and fastest) race this summer. In fact, he was already much improved at the Spanish Championships in Nerja.

The great athlete from Cuevas de Reyllo had no problem setting the pace in the first lap (52.23) and in the final stretch controlled at all times looking both ways to be third with 1:45.74 while Brazier was seventh and said goodbye to the World Cup. The four Americans fell!

The bad news came in the fourth series with Adri Benwho will not be able to emulate his masterful sixth position in the past World Championships nor his sensational fifth place in the Tokyo Games (second best Spanish position in the track event behind Eusebio Cáceres’ fourth in length).

Although the Galician is not so fine this summer due to some physical problem in important moments of 2022, he fought intelligently, knew how to close in the last corner and sprinted with everything he had, but he could not avoid being overtaken by the Tunisian Ayouni. The former azulgrana was fourth with 1:46.71 and did not go through times.

Excellent Sara Gallego

If in the series he ran against the best hurdler in history like Sydney McLaughlin, this Wednesday Sara Gallego has had to share a very tough semifinal with Femke Bolthe fastest European of all time.

The Catalan, only 21 years oldbravely faced the almost impossible mission to fight for one of the first two places or for one of the two times picked up from among the three series with a race from less to more as usual in it.

Gallego progressed on the straight, but he lacked maintaining that change and finished fifth with the second best Spanish mark ever, 54.49. Without a doubt, a great performance and even more so thinking about the European Championships in Munich as she was the fifth European only 25 hundredths of the third, the Ukrainian Tkachuk (54.24).

As for the Holy Trinity of the 400 meter hurdles, the die is cast. McLaughlin showed that she is still the best with 52.17 (watch out for his world record of 51.41 in the final)Femke Bol was also very fast with 52.84 and former world record woman Dalilah Muhammad showed that she still lacks punch in the final stretch with 53.28.