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Martin and Perez open Europe’s medal haul in the 20km race walk in Paris 2024

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Alvaro Martin opened Europe’s medal haul at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 with bronze in the 20km race walk on Thursday (1) morning before his teammate, friend and fellow world champion Maria Perez upgraded to silver in the women’s 20km race walk.

In a race which was delayed by half-an-hour due to localised thunderstorms, Martin was hoping to strike gold to go alongside his world and European accolades but the Spaniard came away with bronze in 1:19:11 behind Ecuador’s Brian Daniel Pintado (1:18:55) and Brazil’s Caio Bonfim (1:19:09).

The trio were evenly matched as they embarked on the final lap of a course which was shadowed by the Eiffel Tower but Pintado made a decisive break at the start of the circuit, hammering a final kilometre of 3:31 to pull away and win the first athletics gold medal of Paris 2024.

Early leader Bonfim was rewarded for his enterprise with silver ahead of Martin who held off a late surge from Italy’s reigning champion Massimo Stano who put up a staunch defence of his Olympic title in Paris.

Stano was bitterly disappointed to miss the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships after fracturing his foot earlier this season but the 32-year-old, who has been cross training for up to 11 hours per day, battled to a fourth-place finish, just missing out on the bronze medal by a mere one second in 1:19:12. 

The winner of the European title Perseus Karlstrom from Sweden, who also won silver at the World Athletics Championships behind Martin last year, was unable to rally to another medal-winning performance, finishing 21st in 1:21:05.

After the race, Karlstrom revealed he had coronavirus in the build-up which left him short of form. 

Perez plays a patient game to win silver 

There was also heartbreak for reigning Olympic and European champion Antonella Palmisano who slumped to the railings in the 13th kilometre of the women’s 20km race walk and took no further part in proceedings.

But world record-holder Yang Jiayu defied the rising temperatures and high humidity to take the victory in a near gun-to-tape 1:25:54 ahead of Spain’s double world champion Maria Perez (1:26:19) and Australia’s Jemima Montag (1:26:25), an Oceanian record.

On the comeback from a stress fracture which threatened to blight her season, Perez bided her time in the early stages but she broke away from the chase pack and began to make up ground on the long-time leader.

A 44 second gap at the 13-kilometre checkpoint dwindled to 15 seconds at 18 kilometres but seemingly aware of the pressure being exerted by Perez, a determined Yang Jiayu gritted her teeth and eked out a final kilometre of 4:07 to seal the gold medal. 

However, the Spaniards were the unofficial winners of the team race as their country's strength in depth was on show again.

Behind Perez, her teammates Laura Garcia-Caro and Cristina Monteseros were seventh (1:28:12) and tenth (1:29:11) respectively as Spain was the only nation to have all three race walkers finish inside the top 10.

And after two individual medals, expectations will be high for the Spaniards in the first iteration of the marathon race walk mixed relay which takes place at 7.30am local time next Wednesday (7) when Martin and Perez are likely to join forces. 

Steven Mills for European Athletics

 




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