Jesús David Delgado’s expression twisted when he saw the scoreboard. The bronze medal was worth 48.26s, the time set by the Turkish Ismail Nezir to get on the podium behind the German Emil Agyeku (47.87s) and the Norwegian Karsten Warholm, the titan of the 400m hurdles, who was two hundredths (46.63s, championship record) away from his best time of the year. El Flaco, as the Canarian is known, finished sixth, four tenths behind Nezir, far from his Spanish record, and that stung because he thought medals would never be above 48 seconds.
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At 27 years old, he knows it’s not wise to miss opportunities and the Tenerife native was stunned on the afternoon when the cool breeze returned to Alexander Stadium, signaling that the scorching days were behind. El Flaco decided to take a risk. He thought it was necessary to run in 47 seconds to snag a medal and decided to change his rhythm. Hurdlers take a certain number of steps around the track. In his case, 13 up to the sixth hurdle and 14 for the rest. This time he went up to the seventh and that, which could have given him an advantage, ended up having the opposite effect: he entered the straight without the vigor that always characterizes him.
The Canarian athlete, who at first, when he left football and got into athletics, hated hurdles until a coach gradually got him to love these obstacles, did not see Warholm throughout the race. The Norwegian dominated the final. “Honestly, this is the reason I do athletics: to be here in front of the crowd and defend the title and break the championship record,” said the Olympic champion and three-time world champion, who in Birmingham has captured his sixth gold medal at a European Championship, four of them in the individual event.
El Flaco was chewing sand to explain his disappointment in the final. “I see the times and think I could have been there. I took one more hurdle at 13 steps and now I don’t know if I should have done it because the wind was strong (on the back straight). I went for it and maybe I was wrong.”
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While Delgado was running, next to the throwing cage, the cheerful Inés López was dancing, the under-23 European champion who debuted among the best discus specialists in Europe after improving her personal best in qualifying (61.45s). A ‘cowgirl’ who loves country music and, wrapped in a down jacket zipped up to the neck, tried not to get cold by spinning and spinning nonstop. The Madrid native, who trains at Arizona State University, ended up with a cramped arm and closed the discus final standings with a mark of 56.59s.
More smiling, happy to discover she finished the first day of the heptathlon in eighth place, in finalist positions, María Vicente could be satisfied after flying in the 100m hurdles (13.38s), performing well in the high jump (1.77), slipping in the shot put (13.09) and struggling in the 200m to achieve her best result, although windy, in combined events (23.71s).
