The Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen, this Thursday in the 1,500 meter classification. OZAN KOSE (AFP)
It’s a study by physiologists who know him very well, the ratio between Jakob Ingebrigtsen and lactic acid, which does not rise above 4.5 millimoles during training on long trips, is science and he’s a very long and stubborn boy who has a half For an hour ahead of the first of four races that await him in his four days in Turkey, the 1,500m semi-final, he runs around the pavilion, jumping up stairs and sidewalks in the cold, dark Istanbul night. He is the star of European athletics, where stars also shine in the hall, at the age of 22 nine times European champion, in all distances (1,500 m, 3,000 m, 5,000 m) and surfaces, outdoors, in the hall and in cross. He is likely to emerge with two more wins from the European Championships in Istanbul, in the 1,500m where the opponents are Scottish and his name is Neil Gourley, and in the 3,000m where Adel Mechaal awaits him happily and sadly in his city.
In the semifinals, the phenomenal Norwegian, more work than talent, which is a lot, wasn’t worried about the lactic acid in his ear or his rivals in the first 1,100 meters chasing everyone. He sped up a little and headed for the final of what might be his tenth European title (and he’s also Olympic 1,500m champion and world 5,000m champion) in which (today, 18:40) only Ignacio Fontes was eliminated. One of the two will be a registered Spaniard be, Jesús Gómez from Burgos (small black bow on the chest, memory of the physiotherapist Ángel Basas who died in an accident, “the person who helped me the most throughout the year when I was injured, ” he says). “Everyone’s talking about Ingebrigtsen, but I don’t know, I haven’t seen him that fresh, maybe because he thinks he has two 3,000m races too and doesn’t want to waste a lot of balls,” says Gómez, bronze medalist in the last two European indoor track championships
In another final, in the women’s 3,000 meters, Spanish athletes compete today. Marta Pérez from Soriana, who trains in Madrid with Antonio Serrano, Adel Mechaal’s coach, and Marta García from Leon, who trains in Valladolid with Uriel Reguero, qualified, as did middle-distance runner Lorea Ibarzabal, for the semi-finals in which the
About 10 years ago, when she was a talented youth with a bright future, her coach presented Lorea Ibarzabal with a jersey for the Spanish team. She says her mother, former track and field athlete and Milera Patricia Padorno, kept it in a drawer and said that until she made it to the national team she would never wear it and of course one day she would become a Spain international. At 28 years old, the athlete from Madrid, although born in the Canary Islands, finally makes her debut in Las Palmas and that, according to her mother, very emotional, and so emotional she adds tearfully after qualifying 800m semifinals (tomorrow, 17.15). “But my tears are because I’m thinking of my friend Bea, today would have been her birthday. He died four months ago,” says the middle-distance runner, who made a big leap in quality this winter and reached the mark of her life with 2:1s. “And I left overwhelmed so as not to disappoint her. And we had a great race between the two of us.” The Mallorcan Daniela García did not make it to the semifinals, nor did Saúl Ordóñez, the best Spaniard in the 800 meters this winter, who was ill all week, in the men.
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