March 2024

The 200-meter track is the living room of his house in Cuevas de Reyllo, Murcia, and the rivals are Chinese shadows that disappear when they try to get closer. Mariano García has achieved perfection. The world indoor champion is favorite to repeat victory today (10.10pm, Teledeporte) in the Glasgow final and it is not a sacrilege to say that David Rudisha, the Maasai athlete, God of distance and present in Glasgow, will not be displeased Not at all, since the elegance of his style is not so distant either.

“As in the series, I have made a double threshold, but in 800m, two equal halves,” says the champion, 26 years old, following a semifinal that, like the series, but slower – “you had to save to have change in the last 100 meters, which is when the bugs come “, explains–, controls from the head, front runner perfect, what beauty, how she turns the complicated into simple, light as a breeze and strong as a hurricane, and her long legs, a hypnotic enchantment that only changes cadence, and minimally when the Italian Catalin Tacuceanu, owner of the best world brand of the year, which tries to sneak into his garden without entry and cut off his rhythm. “We came out with a tactic in mind, but we have to know how to manage the moment. And the lights on the track help me a lot: I see the shadows of the athletes chasing me approaching.”

In the gallery his coach, Gabi Lorente, watches the four turns, bright eyes that cannot hide his excitement. “Yes, Mariano has gained speed. Mariano is better than he was two years ago, when he won the World Cup and then the outdoor European Championship in Munich,” confesses the Fuente Álamo coach. “But no, we don’t double threshold training.”

Double threshold It is the double threshold, two interval training sessions a day taking care not to trigger lactate more than the body can reuse, and there is no athlete who does not release them to talk regarding the Norwegian method or Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the absent middle distance runner who has revolutionized the way of preparing, and will force athletes to wear patches that continuously measure the lactate in their sweat, but not Mariano García, who is above those concepts, a privileged organism, a deep gaze, who walks through Glasgow, up and down the banks of the Clyde and regrets seeing the Scottish city so dull. “I already know it well from walking it so much,” he says. “It is a very sad city, but we Spaniards bring joy with our performances.” And like the king of joy, and generous that he is, Mariano García tries to comfort the sad. On Friday he dedicated his victories to Jorge González Amo, who mourns the recent death of his wife, Cristina. To González Amo, in love with the 1,500m since he ran it in the Mexico Games 68 and so many years, the federation responsible for the distance among the youngest, there is no Spanish athlete who does not consider him his padre. Neither does Mariano García, who considers him his father and his “grandfather” as well, and who also has room in his heart to console Lorena Martín, a Castilian from Peñaranda de Bracamonte, and “a countryman like me,” he says, heartbroken for having been eliminated. in the 800m series

Although neither Moha Attaoui nor Lorea Ibarzabal managed to qualify for the 800m final, Mariano García will not be the only Spaniard protagonist of the supersunday, the final fireworks of Glasgow, exhibition of the aristocratic hierarchy in Europe of the middle distance, with the two finals of 800m and 1,500m as the closing of the world function, from 10:10 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. In the women’s 1,500m final there will be Esther Guerrero and in the men’s final, the Catalan Adel Mechaal and Mario García Romo, the Castilian Villar de Gallimazo who is looking for the perfect formula to give speed to the splendid distance accumulated this winter. “It has been a tough winter in terms of results,” says the 24-year-old from Salamanca, who has a best time of 3m 29.18s in the 1,500m and believes that he will only be truly competitive when he has a best time of 1m 43s in the 800m. , and he does practice the double threshold. “The truth is that I expected much more, but we have learned many things and I believe that the development I have made in the season, in the aerobic part, this winter is going to pay me much more in the outdoor season, than at The end is what is important this year. In the last 10 days I have trained a little more in speed and I think that combination has been very good for me, and I think I can play a great role.”