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Batacazo for María Pérez with an express disqualification

16/07/2022

Updated at 00:12h.

With her hands on her head, somewhat incredulous and escorted by two judges, Maria Perez He was waiting in the pit lane for his return to the race. By then, the dream of the podium was gone. The Grenadian had to serve a two-minute penalty after receiving three warnings for losing contact with the ground, and she was left with no options in the 20 km walkthe first test that distributed medals in the Eugene’s World Cup.

Pérez arrived at the appointment as one of the great hopes of the Spanish delegation. The 2018 European champion, ranked fourth at the Tokyo Games, appeared at the World Cup with special motivation. She had prepared this race thoroughly. Like the rest of the marchers, she had been in Colorado since the end of June, a concentration at 1,600 meters of altitude that should refine her form. She felt good, eager, but she didn’t expect such a fiasco. The Spanish received the first notice of her already at kilometer two. A bad sign. By then, the Peruvian had already escaped ahead Kimberly Garcia Leon and the Chinese Shije Qieyang, an attack that seemed premature.

It was bearably hot in Eugene. Nothing to do with the last World Cup in Doha. Nor with the humidity that the athletes had to endure in Sapporo, venue for the march at the Tokyo Games. But even so, the thermal sensation, in the central hours of the day, caused the athletes to abuse water and wet towels. Pérez received the second warning at kilometer six, when the Polish woman had also jumped from her group Katarzyna Zdzieblo and another of the four Chinese, Zhenxia Ma. The distances were widening, but it seemed that the favourites, including the Spanish, still had the situation under control.

It wasn’t like that. Pérez, crouched under sunglasses, a white cap pulled down to her ears, was holding on in a third group along with the current champion, Hong Liu, and the Australian Jemima Montag, which arrived with the best mark of the season. It was supposed to be up to them to take the lead in the second leg of the race, but the athlete from Granada did not even make it to that point. Before, kilometer 8, she received that third notice that completely condemned her options. She had 33 minutes in the race. The Spanish was forced to stop in a section of the route and wait two minutes before being able to rejoin the test. By the time she did she was close to 30th place, more than three minutes off the lead. She attempted a heroic comeback that was severed again by the judges with a final fourth notice. Pérez ended up being disqualified at kilometer thirteen, just at the same time that the Peruvian Kimberly García León launched a new and definitive attack on the head until she achieved historic gold for her country. This year she had already been third in the Team World Cup, held in Muscat. The Chinese Qieyang broke down, the silver ended up being for the Polish Zdzieblo, who surpassed her with just over two kilometers to go. China, defending the treble in Doha, had to settle for bronze.


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