The women’s final of the 800 meters of the Spanish Athletics Championships is this Sunday at 18.25 at the Vallehermoso Stadium in Madrid. And the 1,500 will be played 10 minutes later, at 18.35. In both, Esther Guerrero plans to be there, and she has set herself a spectacular challenge: do the double and take both titles in just eight minutes, because you have to subtract the two that you will invest in the 800. «I’m fine, I don’t play any international brand, I don’t have pressure, and it’s something exciting and motivating that I want to do for myself, because surely we will never be in a year as strange as this that can allow me », said yesterday the athlete from Banyoles. Guerrero’s season is coming to an end and, precisely because of the performance he has given, he would like it to last indefinitely. After the Spanish championship, he will only have one Diamond League test left in Doha on the 26th.
“I’m very sorry that the season is over,” admits the banyolina. At first he admits that when he was offered the double he said no. “But then, turning around, I came to the conclusion that I was excited to try it, it represents an extra motivation, and I don’t lose anything,” he says. That is why both she and her coach, Joan Lleonart, have decided that they will be planted in Madrid “and we will see how I react. We started the summer taking control of Olot and breaking the record of 2,000 and I want to end it by giving a show. We’ll see what happens, because it won’t be easy. ” To be able to make the challenge a reality Esther Guerrero will need to make it to the semifinals, scheduled for Saturday, the 800 to 18.25 and the 1,500 to 19.10.
For his part, Joan Lleonart explains that “we are looking to ratify a year that has gone very well. It’s a motivation. He will compete without an audience at the stadium, in a very strange 2020, and the hope is to do well and he can win the double. Guerrero is aware that competing in two tests, and almost immediately, will create “excitement” in rivals, “it will be different than if you competed only once, and we will see what strategies they follow.” In any case, the challenge is launched, and will seek to do for the first time what another Girona athlete, Adel Mechaal, has already achieved twice in a Spanish championship: he won in 1,500 and 5,000 in 2015 and 2017. 2015, precisely in Castellón, was the first time that Guerrero won in a state (800).
The challenge comes at the best moment of the career of Esther Guerrero, who in 2020 broke the record for the 2000 meters in Olot (5: 41.30), and who made her personal best in the Diamond League in Brussels in the 1,000 (2: 35.64). At the Solletuna rally in August, he set his best record in 800 (2: 00.56).
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