The penultimate weekend of September has been synonymous with athletics in Sant Mateu for fifteen years. Miguel Ángel Barral and Gloria Tejado were the first to raise their arms after going around Pla d’Albarca twice. The runner from the Compostela athletic section and the representative of the Club Atletisme Santa Eulària set the best times in the queen race, the 10 kilometer race. In the 5K, Mark Roper, one of the promises of the Club Atletisme Pitiús, and Carolina Gámez (Tejada’s teammate at the Club Atletisme Santa Eulària) rose to the top of the podium.
The morning woke up cool, but when the participants in the Cursa Pla de Sant Mateu were warming up next to the starting banner the thermometer reached twenty degrees. The gunshot launched more than three hundred pairs of sneakers. Roper put on the turbo and passed first past the crowd that had gathered in the finish area. 16 minutes and 21 seconds later, the Spanish 3,000 meter runner-up crossed the finish line. He did it just in front of the handful of skaters who had traveled the circuit on wheels and with more than a minute’s lead on their pursuers. Daniel González (Sa Raval) and Juanjo Torres (Presuntos Triatletas) finished second and third with marks of 17’37” and 18’26”. The female winner of the 5K appeared at the finish line shortly after. Carolina Gámez took the victory after an effort of 21 minutes and 19 seconds. Laura Serra (Sa Raval, 23’27”) and Luisa Bonet (Santa Eulària, 24’16”) escorted her in the podium photo.
Three quarters of an hour after the start, Juanjo Planells announced over the public address system that all the runners in the 5,000 meter event had finished the race. By then, and not without excitement, the winners of the 10K were already known. Despite not having the competition of some of the numbers to follow in the popular Ibizan events (Adrián Guirado, William Aveiro…), Miguel Ángel Barral had to fight for victory with Daniel Planells. The man from Santa Eulari, bronze medalist in the European Championship for deaf-mutes, did not give in until the last stretch. Barral, Galician by birth, but resident on the island for fifteen years, left his rival behind shortly before the slope that leads to the finish. A mark of 33 minutes and 22 seconds allowed him to celebrate his first victory in the Cursa Pla de Sant Mateu. Planells arrived fifteen seconds later. Triathlete Aritz Rodríguez (Trideporte) entered the finish line after 34 minutes and 6 seconds of racing and climbed to the third step of the box. He kept pace with the first two until halfway through the first turn.
Gloria Tejado, for her part, quickly found herself in first position. The organization’s bicycle that she rides alongside her leaders reminded him of her privileged position. The representative of the Club Atletisme Santa Eulària regulated her effort well and stopped the clock at 39’59”, completing the record of running the kilometer in less than four minutes, a circuit that accumulates a certain unevenness. María García (Eiviatletisme) came second, practically a minute behind.
While the last runners crossed the final banner (for some it was their baptism in a long-distance race), they refreshed themselves and recovered calories at the refreshment point, Sant Mateu was filling up with children. The lower category races brought together more than 150 children, a figure that demonstrates the pull that athletics continues to have among children and adolescents in Ibiza.
Miguel Ángel Barral: “It is one of the races that I usually run because it is the starting point of the Ibiza calendar. It is beautiful because of the people who come together, we are all known. Immediately we were left with only three runners and, not much later, only two. Dani and I have been controlling so as not to go over the pace, but in the end you always go a little faster than you should and the last kilometers are hard. I didn’t make a change to break the race, I simply let myself go more and he was already a little fairer.”
Gloria Tejado: “The first lap went very well because it was cool, but in the second it was hotter and the climbs from the first lap were noticeable. The finish seems very hard to me, but this race is beautiful: the landscape is spectacular and it runs very well because the asphalt is phenomenal. The atmosphere is very cool because there are a lot of people. It is the third year that I have run it, but with specific preparation it is the first. “I had not gone under 45 minutes and this year I have gone under 40. I am very happy because I am preparing for the Valencia Marathon and this race serves as a quality test for me.”
2023-09-24 11:55:14
#Miguel #Ángel #Barral #Gloria #Tejado #win #Pla #Sant #Mateu #Race
