In Nanjing, from March 21 to 23, the star will be Mondo Duplantis, the Swedish of Louisian screens, but not many Europeans, although some figure, such as the stainless Norwegian salmon Jakob Ingebrigttsen, which will seek to repeat the double 1-500m-3,000m victory.
The best athletes of the great powers of the Old Continent —Initia, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany – are tired and ask for rest before launching to prepare a summer season dominated by the European Championship by selections in Madrid, by San Juan, and in the Outdoor Tokyo World Cup in September. All will bring to China an almost symbolic representation, which in Spain is reduced to 13 athletes (eight men and five women), one of the smallest in history. The elections of José Peiró, national coach, agreed with athletes and their coaches, at least have not generated the controversy in France, where Renaud Lavillenie, 38, has been left out of the team to include a younger pertiguist, 23 years old, applying an element, the age, which did not appear in the list of official criteria. Lavillenie, who jumped 5.91m on February 28, has protested by discrimination.
They will not be in Nanjing some of the most brilliant Spaniards, neither the relays nor Paula Sevilla nor Lester Lescay nor the Valladists nor Abel Jordán. Only a Spanish gold medalist in Apsoorn is part of the team, precisely the Triple Champion, Ana Peleteiro, who goes with victory possibilities to a championship he has never won (it was bronze in Birmingham 2018, in the first coronation of her friend Yulimar Rojas, and bronze in Glasgow in 2024) and in a specialty that passes through very low hours. Together with the Galician they will travel to China this Saturday – adaptation to the Jet Lag forces – Lorea Ibarzabal, who participated in the 800m of the Europeans, Esther Guerrero, finalist in 1,500my captain of the team, Marta García, fall and fourth in the 3,000 of Appealoorn, and Fatima Diame, fifth in length. The men will be the Barcelona Guillem Crespí (sixth in the 60m final in Appealoorn), Manuel Guijarro and Markel Fernández, brilliant actors in the achievement of La Plata in the 4×400 relay of the recent European event; Álvaro de Arriba and Josué Canales, fourth in the 800m final in Apeldoorn; Adrián Ben, who this winter has worked the 1,500m, and that, although it could not be classified for the Europeans showed a tremendous level in the 800m also, and Mariano García, who jumps at 1,500 from a distance, the 800m, in which he was world champion in Belgrade 2022, and does so with a single goal. “I want to beat Jacob,” he confessed to Jorge González Amo in Apeldoorn after falling eliminated in the semifinals of 800m, and in Triple will compete Marcos Ruiz, who achieved his best brand (16.78m, in the recent championships of Spain in Gallur), which did not earn him to overcome the selection criteria for Europeans.
