Long wait for medal over, Ben now looks to outdoor success

It would have been the perfect birthday present to himself.

When Adrián Ben took to the startline for the men’s 800m final at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, on the day he turned 23, he knew he was an outside bet for a medal. But that discipline can be unpredictable at the best of times, and some of the top-ranked performers in the 800m had either failed to reach the final or were absent from the Games all together.

Ben had reached the final at the 2019 World Championships in Doha when, aged just 21, he was even more of an underdog. He placed a creditable sixth on that occasion after setting a PB of 1:44.97 in the semifinal.

Tokyo, he felt, was his time to step up and challenge for a medal.

And challenge he did. But ultimately he fell just 0.57 shy of the bronze medal.

It may not have been the birthday present he was looking for, but Ben still made history by becoming Spain’s first Olympic finalist in the men’s 800m. He was also able to turn the experience into motivation for future championships.

Fast forward 19 months, and Ben was once again on the start line of another major 800m final, this time at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul. He had advanced through the rounds with ease and won his semifinal.

But he almost didn’t make it to Istanbul at all.

He had placed fourth at the Spanish Indoor Championships just two weeks before the European Indoors. Although he set a PB of 1:46.12 in that race, Ben’s place on the team was by no means a guarantee as three of his compatriots – Saul Ordonez, world indoor champion Mariano Garcia and Javier Miron – finished inside 1:46.

“Despite my international background, I felt I didn’t have much chance of being selected for Istanbul in the days following the Spanish Championships,” said Ben.

Fortunately for him, though, Garcia declined his place on the team so that he could focus on the outdoor season, opening up a place for Ben.

“Once that happened, I thought, ‘I have to take advantage of this opportunity’,” said Ben.

He did exactly that.

“(France’s Benjamin) Robert had shown impressive consistency during the indoor season with several wins,” said Ben. “I knew he and Belgium’s Eliot Crestan were the athletes to watch, alongside Andreas Kramer, the fastest entrant, and Amel Tuka, who is a great competitor.”

The key point in the final came with half a lap to go.

“Entering the final bend, Crestan tried to overtake me, but I managed to defend my second place,” recalls Ben. “Then I thought, ‘I have already secured the silver medal; let’s now go for the gold’.

“I realised I was closing in on Robert and that it was going to be a blanket finish, so I tried to jump towards the finish line at the right moment. To be honest, I wasn’t sure at all that I had won. Luckily, it took only a few seconds to confirm the gold medal was mine.”

Ben had won by just three thousandths of a second, 1:47.335 to 1:47.338.

“Of course I would like to win every race I take part in, but I’m also fully conscious that’s hard to accomplish, so my real target is always to be satisfied with my performance,” said Ben. “And ideally that performance should lead me to a podium place.

“Of course I was really proud of finishing sixth in Doha aged only 21, and becoming the first Spaniard in history making an Olympic 800m final in Tokyo,” said Ben. “But I love winning, and that means crossing the finish line first – that’s a unique feeling.

“Having said that, I’m fully aware that finishing fifth at the Olympics is regarded a more remarkable accolade than a European indoor title,” he added. That said, Ben struggled to choose a favourite achievement from his career to date. It’s like being asked whether you prefer your father or your mother,” he laughed. “I can’t choose.”

Coming from behind

Doha, Tokyo, Istanbul… on each of those occasions, Ben was at the back of the pack during the opening stages of the 800m finals.

That’s not just a meticulously planned tactic, though – it’s also a physiological limitation, says Ben.

“Let’s say I’m not a pure 800m specialist,” he explains. “I haven’t got the speed of those athletes who clock 45 seconds for 400m, so when a race opens with a 24-second first 200m and reaches the bell in about 50 seconds, I need to be cautious and run my own first lap. That allows me to get the maximum possible speed without generating lactic acid.

“Thankfully, I have a great stamina and my second half is usually very strong, so I don’t panic when I go through the bell 10 or even 15 metres behind the leaders. I’m always confident they are going to slow down over the second half and I can maintain my speed and catch most of them.”

To underline Ben’s stamina, he placed a respectable 10th in the U23 race, held over 8km, at the 2018 European Cross Country Championships.

“I also prefer back-to-back semifinals and finals at major championships,” he says. “Having two races on consecutive days plays to my strengths.”

Change of plans in 2022

While 2023 has started well for Ben, last year was something of a disappointment.

The Viveiro-born runner went into the season considering a move up to the 1500m, believing it would give him his best chance of making a major championship final. But once the season got under way, he reverted back to the 800m. After the hesitation of which event to focus on, Ben ended up exiting in the heats of the World Championships and the semifinals of the European Championships.

Incidentally, Ben had started out as more of a 1500m runner. He went into the 2019 European U23 Championships in Gavle as one of the favourites for a medal in that event, but missed out on making the final after easing up too much in his heat. Compatriot Ignacio Fontes, whom Ben had beaten at the Spanish U23 Championships just two weeks prior, went on to win gold in Gavle.

That became the perfect motivation for the rest of Ben’s season.

Just six days after his costly mistake in Gavle, Ben entered a race in Barcelona and stepped down to 800m. He was rewarded with a PB of 1:45.78, which was inside the World Championships qualifying time. Not only did it earn Ben his first place at a global championships, it also marked a turning point in his career as he started to focus more on the 800m from that point forward.

“Sometimes we don’t choose the distance,” says Ben. “It’s the distance that picks us.”

Ben, who trains in Madrid under the guidance of Arturo Martín, the man who led Arturo Casado to European 1500m gold in 2010, continues to keep his options open.

“I like both disciplines,” he says. “I’m not sure what will happen in the future, but that doesn’t worry me at all. Maybe I’ll do 800m forever, or maybe I’ll go to the World Championships in the 1500m – who knows? It’s just a matter of which distance I feel most comfortable with in any given season, but the most likely option will be to focus on the 800m until the Paris Olympics and then my coach and I will quietly discuss what to do for the next Olympic cycle leading up to Los Angeles 2028.”

Brilliant past, ambitious future

Before he settled on the 1500m and 800m, Ben was a steeplechaser.

He contested the 2000m steeplechase at the 2015 World U18 Championships in Cali – his first international competition – and finished sixth.

“I’d compete in flat races back then too, but my former coach Mariano Castineira advised me to enter the steeplechase as it would be my best chance of a medal.

Just two years later, and this time focusing on the 1500m, Ben earned his first championship medal when finishing third at the European U20 Championships in Grosseto.

“When Jakob Ingebrigtsen fell in that race with 300 metres to go, I kicked as hard as I could,” recalls Ben. “I faltered a bit in the home straight and eventually finished third. Incredibly, despite his fall, Ingebrigtsen was about to catch us. But I’m still able to say that I beat Ingebrigtsen,” he adds with a laugh.

The Grand Slam

If Ben had to choose just one major accolade to win, it would of course be the Olympic title.

“They are held just once every four years, and all athletes want to be there and prepare carefully for it,” he says. “I would even prefer an Olympic bronze ahead of a world title.”

That said, his big target for this year remains the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23. And his victory in Istanbul has given Ben a renewed sense of optimism for the future.

“For me, there are five major championships: the Olympic Games, plus the world and Europeans, indoors and outdoors,” explains Ben. “That’s what I call ‘the Grand Slam’ in athletics, and I’m definitely going to fight to the death to win all of those.

“Of course, I’m fully aware that it’s enormously difficult to achieve, but I’m going to try it.”

Emeterio Valiente for World Athletics