In the first significant road race to take place in Spain since the end of February, Fernando Carro marked the resumption of the domestic road racing calendar by clocking the fastest ever road 10km by a Spaniard in Alcobendas on Sunday (22).
Carro’s time of 27:46 was two seconds faster than Antonio Abadia’s national record of 27:48 although his time will not be ratified due to the downhill nature of the course.
Paced by a phalanx of teammates including fellow internationals Roberto Alaiz, Yago Rojo and the now-retired 2006 European 5000m champion Jesus Espana, Carro started aggressively, reaching the 3km mark in 8:24 and the 5km 13:39 although this was part of his race strategy.
“My goal is to try to get through the first five kilometres as fast as possible and then hold the second half. I'm nervous,” said Carro at the virtual pre-event press conference on Friday.
Carro did indeed pay for his exuberant start and the European 3000m steeplechase silver medallist had to run most of the last four kilometres alone. But Carro dug deep in the latter stages and a faster last kilometre which was covered in 2:47 brought him narrowly under Abadia’s national record.
'I was striding out well but when I was alone I had some moments of doubt. But I have thrown everything I had at it,' he said.
Behind Carro, Jorge Blanco and Jesus Ramos both broke the 28 minute-barrier with 27:51 and 27:56 respectively while Marta Garcia won the women’s race in 32:38.
Strict coronavirus protocols were put in place for today’s race. Only 550 runners took part and the competitors were separated into 10 groups based on their lifetime bests. Each group of runners lined up in grid format at one minute intervals and masks were mandatory both immediately before and after the race.