Spain sees the trump card of the 20 km walk in the World Cup vanish

María Pérez, disqualified when fighting for the medal

Álvaro Martín, seventh, best Spaniard in the men's race

The Spanish María Pérez ended up disqualified this Friday in the 20-kilometer walk test of the 2022 World Cup that is being held in Eugene, Oregon (United States), weighed down by a two-minute penalty in the first half of the test that the Peruvian won Kimberly Garcia Leon.

The Granada-born woman was penalized by the judges with three cards, two in a row, which sent her to the pit lane for two minutes in the seventh kilometer. There the medal options of one of the best tricks of Spain in the World Cup disappeared. Later, the men's race with Álvaro Martín (7th), Alberto Amezcua (9th) and Diego García Carrera (16th) did not succeed either.

Pérez, fourth in the Tokyo 2020 Games, arrived at the event with the second best time of the year and initially showed it in the leading group that formed after 1,000 meters of running, with the Chinese Shijie Qieyang, Hong Liu, Zhenxia Ma, Quanming Wu, the Australian Jemima Montag, the Mexican Alegna González, the Polish Katarzyna Zdzieblo and the Peruvian Kimberly García León.

The one-kilometer circuit on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, very close to the Hayward Field stadium where the World Cup is held, made the start screening, but the movements in the lead were not long in coming. Of the 41 athletes, the gold and silver began to be raffled between García León and Qieyang reaching the third kilometer. The Spanish, European champion four years ago, received the first notice of her while she saw the gold escape at half a minute and the medal at 11, also tied little by little by the Polish Zdzieblo.

The group broke up but the chase had no effect. Then, the national record holder found herself with those sanctions almost in a row and the surprise when passing through the 'pit lane' of having to stop for two minutes. The judges, who ended up eliminating many athletes, stopped María in her tracks, who returned to the race with strength and by all means, climbing a dozen positions.

However, the Granada woman ended up disqualified at kilometer 14 for not stretching her leg, fourth and final card, just when the battle for gold began in the lead. Qieyang had tried the Peruvian, but it was the American who hit the table until achieving a historic gold for her country.

And it is that, the metal of García León is the first in the history of Peru in a World Athletics Championship, champion with a time of 1:26.58. Qieyang was overtaken by Zdzieblo, the Polish silver and the Chinese bronze. For Spanish athletics, a jug of cold water since, even if it is only the beginning, María Pérez's was a serious medal option, of which she does not have many Spain in Eugene.

In the men's race, which was held next, the podium was made very expensive by the Japanese Toshikazu Yamanishi, who defended his gold in an intractable way (1:19.07), and Koki Ikeda, silver, while the bronze went to the Swedish Perseus Karlstrom. The trio of Spaniards endured half of the test but from then on the medal options also vanished.

Álvaro Martín finished seventh (1:20.19), Alberto Amezcua was ninth and Diego García Carrera, 16th. For Martín, after his fourth place in Tokyo 2020 and European champion also like María Pérez in 2018, the podium was the goal and in the fight he held on until the last five kilometers. The twenty walkers who were in the lead from the start fell to the rhythm of the Japanese.

Yamanishi started as a shot, then relaxed and landed the final blow as well. Martín was signing his surrender in those last laps, with the wear and tear and the heat tightening, and with him the Spanish hope that the march would give another success to the collection.

After the halfway point of the test, García Carrera suffered from Yamanishi's acceleration and was losing positions until he was sixteenth (1:23.21), surpassed by an Amezcua with a great finish. The Andalusian did not finish hooking himself at the head of the start but he did not drop either, with the strength for a spectacular comeback and a world 'Top 10' (1:30.44).