Maria Perez. /
María Pérez tried to take refuge in the pursuing group, made up of half a dozen marchers, but things soon began to get complicated.
He came to Eugene for all. Fourth last year at the Tokyo Games, her second world record of the season made María Pérez harbor all kinds of hopes, one of the great options of Spanish athletics in this World Cup. But all her plans were blown up when she saw the third warning from the judges when they had barely reached half of the 20-kilometer walk. The marcher from Orce (Granada) grabbed her head covered with a cap when she had to stop in the pit lane to serve a two-minute penalty that lasted forever for María Pérez. Standing there, the Granada-born woman saw all the work she had invested this season go by, including three weeks of preparation in Colorado before going to the World Cup, to try to fulfill her dream of winning the gold.
The event, held under a blazing sun along Eugene’s Martin Luther King Boulevard, went full steam ahead under the leadership of China’s Quieyang and Peru’s Kimberly García, ultimately the athlete who won the title. María Pérez tried to take refuge in the pursuing group, made up of half a dozen marchers, but things soon began to get complicated. A too uncontrolled test from the beginning was joined by the warnings, which arrived very soon. For a walker who aspires to everything, receiving two warnings from the judges when she had barely exceeded five kilometers seemed like a very dangerous ballast, a threat as soon as she tried to force the pace in the decisive part of the test. But she didn’t even have a choice because halfway through the test the dreaded two-minute penalty already arrived.
It so happens that it is the second similar situation experienced by María Pérez this season. In April, at the World Athletic event in Podebrady (Czech Republic), the Granada-born woman was stopped in the pits when she had barely run seven kilometers because the judges considered that she had neglected her march. And although she charged back, she was disqualified at ten. Yesterday she also decided to continue despite having lost all options and she undertook a solo march that led her to finish, the same thing happened again. Despite her determination to come back, she suffered the final blow with a new warning around kilometer 14 that meant her disqualification.
At least in a month she has her second chance, that of becoming European champion in the 20-kilometre walk at the continental event in Munich, but after the bitter aftertaste of last year with her fourth place in the Games, the displeasure of yesterday was important for Jacinto Garzón’s pupil, who will have to resolve the technical problems of the last appointments by August.
