This Friday an exciting Spanish Championship begins

From Friday to Sunday, the thriving Spanish athletics has an unavoidable appointment with the Spanish Indoor Athletics Championships to be held in Ourense with a host of hot tests ahead of the World Cup to be held in Belgrade in mid-March.

With the men’s high hurdles and the middle and long distance events marked by a notable number of minimums with only two selectable athletes per event, the results in Galician lands will be key for the selection to be announced in March the federative technical director Pepe Peiró.

This Friday the fire opens with the combined ones as the great attraction of the first day. In females, the Catalan María Vicente is especially strikingwho at 20 years old has the fourth best record on the planet this year with the 4,495 points he achieved on January 30 in Aubiére, just six short of his absolute Spanish record.

If you manage to exceed 1.75 meters in height or at least 1.72, everything indicates that should be at national record marks. Her great rival will be Claudia Conte, who left at 4,429 that day in French lands and is eleventh on the planet. She completes a throne quartet that will carry out her five tests this Friday Andrea Medina (4,110) and Carmen Ramos (4,057 and 4,180 personal best).

In the male category, Jorge Ureña from Alicante appears without a brand after physical problems have prevented him from finishing any heptathlons this winter. It will be the last chance for the triple European indoor medalist to get his ticket to Belgrade.

The heptathletes will carry out their first four tests this Friday and that of Oñil will have as its main rival a Jorge Dávila who is astonishing at 21 years old and who has already gone to 5,742 points with a remarkable 4.70 in the pole vault.

In addition, this Thursday will be played the 200 meter series. In women, the favorite for gold is Paula Sevilla, who snatched the Spanish record of 300 meters (37.19) from Aauri Lorena Bokesa in December and who starts with the best mark (23.50), followed by Barça’s Eva Santidirán (23.61) and Lucía Carrillo (23.82) without forgetting the also Barcelona player Cristina Lara (24.06).

In the men’s category, Dani Rodríguez from Granada is presented as the great favorite, who since 2017 only let the title slip away in 2018 behind Óscar Husillos and who is the only ‘sub21’ of the winter with 20.97. His main rivals should be Ignacio Sáez (21.15), Oriol Madí (21.32) and the azulgrana Pol Retamal (21.33 and with 20.99 as a personal best).

The other great protagonist of the day will be Adel Mechaal, possibly the best Spanish athlete of the winter with permission only from Mariano García. The Spanish-Moroccan appears in Ourense with the aim of achieving another ‘double’ in the 3,000 and 1,500 meters as he once did outdoors with the 1,500 and 5,000 meters.

Mechaal will compete in the 3,000-meter semifinals this Friday with the confidence that the 7:30.82 achieved in New York that allowed him to erase from the lists (finally) the 7:32.41 that the ‘cheater’ Sergio Sánchez had held since 2010 as a continental record.

Fourth in the world ranking of the year, the New Balance athlete will face level rivals of the obstacle Sebas Martos (7:52.37)the Spanish-Moroccan Anderrahman El Khayami (7:54.32) and another ‘obstaculero’ like Dani Arce (8:02.25).

In women there will not be as much quality as both Esther Guerrero and Marta Pérez have opted for the ‘milqui’. So, the Spanish-Portuguese Solange Pereira has serious options to win her first gold after reigning in 1500 between 2015 and 2017. His mark of the year is 8:55.95 and he will face Cristina Ruiz (8:58.20) and Cristina Espejo (9:02.72), among others.

For Saturday and Sunday there will be many more great duelswith the recently nationalized Jordan Díaz, the recovered Bruno Hortelano and stars like Ana Peleteiro, the aforementioned Mariano García, Sául Ordónez, Esther Guerrero, Marta Pérez and many more.