There is no race more tactically complex than the 1,500 meters, say the middle-distance aristocrats, those who maintain their position at the top of the athletics hierarchy. And there has been no greater chaos at the European Championships in Rome than that generated by the judges when requalifying for Wednesday’s final (22.26) five athletes eliminated in the second semi-final, whose results sheet, with so many qR – qualified by repechage – behind From the names, it seems like the menu of a restaurant today. The decision, in response to a massive fall, was not understood by the athletes themselves, not even by any of the beneficiaries, nor by the fans or the wise men of athletics, who consider goodism a symptom of decadence, the desire that no one ever suffer anything. .
“I just hope they don’t requalify anyone,” had warned, fearing what would happen a couple of hours later, the Catalan athlete Adel Mechaal, magnificently classified in the first semifinal. “Those who have been left out, claiming that the fall has harmed them, should have done like Isaac Nader, the Portuguese who fell, got up, accelerated and managed to get into the top six to advance to the final. And I want a final of 12, not 15, which will be much more complicated to manage.”
“It is a fashion that I do not understand and that goes against the sense of athletics,” reflects Jorge González Amo, pioneer of the Spanish 1,500m and coach and teacher. “The fall is part of the chances of the competition. It is as if an athlete were to complain that he has not been able to change because he has remained locked in and achieve benefits for himself. And it hurts athletes like Nader, who has made much more effort to enter legally than those left behind. Until Jakob Ingebrigtsen [el noruego, el gran favorito, también se quedó cortado por la caída, pero con su habitual capacidad pasmosa para hacer parecer fácil lo más difícil, el signo de los campeones, en dos zancadas y un cambio de ritmo se puso en cabeza y hasta ganó la serie] “He could complain and even withdraw, since the decision clearly harms him.”
There will not be 15 finalists on Wednesday as Mechaal timidly feared, but even more, 17, and among them will be another Spaniard, Ignacio Fontes from Granada, who finished seventh in the eventful semi-final and who, before knowing that he would be one of the beneficiaries, He stated that he did not think that he should be benefited, since the hubbub had hardly hurt him. The third Spaniard in the competition, Mario García Romo, bronze in the previous European Championships and, precisely, the one who had the most possibilities according to the specialists, was eliminated in the first semi-final, seventh, by only one hundredth. The man from Salamanca, who trains in Boulder, Colorado, and ran with slip-on shoes that adapted to his foot like a tight boot, accepted the failure with apparent calmness, which also affected the Norwegian Narve Nordas, bronze medalist in the World Championship. Budapest 10 months ago. “This is an example of the high level of the European 1,500m,” said García Romo, who maintains that his great goal of the year is the Olympic Games. “And it shows how complicated 1,500m races are.”
“Although the big favorite is Ingebrigtsen, who is from another planet, and Nader and the Frenchman Habz are very strong,” concludes Mechaal, already fourth in the 5,000m that the Norwegian won, “I see myself with a chance of a medal, especially “If it is a fast race, between 3m 30s and 3m 33s…”
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