Jesús España competing in the Spanish Champs in Seville (© Juan Jose Úbeda)
Zaragoza, SpainReigning European 5000m champion Jesús España provided the main highlight at the ‘Gran Premio CAI Ciudad de Zaragoza’ held Saturday (7) with most of the national crème in action. The 30-year-old Spaniard won the 1500m event in style although he was fiercely challenged by the reigning European U-23 1500m champion in the guise of Álvaro Rodríguez.
3:40.92 on a tight 180m track for ‘09 debut
Once the pacemaker had finished his duties covering the opening 1000m in 2:27.5, España, who is also the reigning European indoor 3000m bronze medallist, took charge of the race closely followed by the 21-year-old Rodríguez.
It was centimetres before the bell that Rodríguez managed to pass España but the latter never surrendered as he remained at Rodríguez’s shoulder throughout the final lap before unleashing a late burst of speed in the short home straight to claim a fine 3:40.92 success for a PB while Rodríguez was timed at 3:41.03, also a career best for the promising miler.
“The first competition of the season is always a question mark but fortunately I had good feelings today. My win has been extremely difficult since Álvaro Rodríguez was ahead of me with barely 40m to go,” confessed España who detailed his indoor agenda: “I’ll next be competing on Saturday (14 February) at the IAAF permit in Valencia over 3000m, then I’ll face the Spanish championships the following weekend (21/22) in Seville to conclude with the Europeans in Turin in early March.”
Fast 3000m in Valencia, next goal
Asked on his target for next Saturday’s outing in Valencia, a confident España said: “I’m in good shape and would like to break my indoor PB of 7:42.54 but I don’t rule out to dip under 7:40 there.” Thinking of the Europeans, that kind of mark would leave España ready for an interesting battle with newly minted British record holder Mo Farah who clocked 7:40.99 on 31 January in Glasgow.
“After such a brilliant performance I consider Farah as the hot favourite for Turin although it’s still early days and other athletes can also show fine form in the weeks prior to the Europeans.”
With two European 3000m indoor bronze medals already under his belt (Vienna 2002 and Birmingham 2007) España admitted he wouldn’t sign other thing that the gold medal in Turin.
7:58.08 3000m effort, Diego Ruiz extends his portfolio
The men’s 3000m event was taken by a former (2001) European Junior 4x400m bronze medallist, Diego Ruiz. The 26-year-old Spaniard, who clocked 47.47 for the 400m that year, tackled the following years firstly the 800 and then the 1500m, where he took last year’s European Cup win in Moscow.
Holder of a 1500 outdoor PB of 3:35.40 Ruiz contested in Zaragoza the 3000m event to dip under the 8:00 barrier for the first time beating the reigning European indoor 1500m bronze medallist Arturo Casado in the process, the latter being time at 7:59.59 with a third Spaniard only 0.02s behind in the guise of Francisco Javier Abad.
7.97 European lead for Onya in the 60m Hurdles, Quiñónez rounding into form
Josephine Onyia produced an excellent run in the hurdles to build a massive gap on her training mate and former (2006) World indoor silver medallist Glory Alozie, 7.97 and 8.26 their respective clockings. Drawn in lane 3 and with a reaction time of 0.166 Onyia negotiated the first barrier already in charge of the race and romped home unopposed. The Nigerian-born sprinter, who took commanding wins at last year’s Golden League legs in Berlin and Oslo in the 100m Hurdles, is also eyeing a medal at the European indoors this season.
In the men’s event the reigning European indoor bronze medallist Jackson Quiñónez bounced back from a poor reaction time of 0.181 to slice a massive 0.14 seconds from his previous SB to clock 7.66 exactly one month before the Europeans.
In other events, Luis Alberto Marco – fourth placed at the last Europeans in Birmingham over 800m – snatched a narrow win from Spanish record holder Antonio Reina, 1:48-92 and 1:49.06 their respective times while former World and European Shot Put indoor champion Manuel Martínez suffered a defeat to Borja Vivas, their heaves measured at 19.62 and 18.92.
Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF
