• Protagonists: Bruno Hortelano's long winter: "If he can't compete, he won't compete"

Last July in Monaco, where athletics dresses in rich sport, is applauded by a prince, shines in front of the Mediterranean, Fernando Carro broke Spain's record of 3,000 meters obstacles, a record that had been in force since 2002, and was placed as the fastest European quarter in history, but when he returned home in the San Blas neighborhood of Madrid his mother landed him with a question and, when he got down to make a coffee, friends repeated it just in case: «A what's so much commotion if you finished fourth?

«Then they tell me that now I don't believe it. But how am I going to believe it? I surround myself with people who have no idea of ​​athletics, who remind me every day that outside the tracks I am still anonymous and that running is somewhat banal, that I am not changing the world. I know that killing myself for running faster doesn't make much sense. The only thing that perhaps makes sense is to be an example for one, two or three kids from the neighborhood, who approach the tracks of the Suanzes and that helps them in life as it helped me, ”says Carro, who, at his best Always moment, it does not come up. He is the benchmark of Spanish athletics with Ana Peleteiro and Orlando Ortega ; the star of the recent inauguration of Vallehermoso and the Spanish Championship that is celebrated in La Nucía today and tomorrow; one of Nike's icons in Europe; but above all he is a neighborhood boy.

In spite of the money of the sponsors and the meetings of the Diamond League -which is raffled-, he still lives in his small apartment overlooking the Wanda and from there he does not plan to move. «I totally avoid the economic issue. I don't know what my cache is and, when I'm going to compete abroad, I don't know how much the prizes go up for winning or breaking records. I want to enjoy athletics as I dreamed of doing as a child and be proud of what I experienced when I was 60 or 70 years old. As I spend no more than a few years ago, what comes to me goes to savings, ”says the heterodox obstacleist, Emil Zatopek Spanish. His technique is far from perfect, his accelerations with his head bowed are a rarity and, on the other hand, watching him run is moving, exciting, addictive.

After hanging silver at the Berlin European last year, at the next World Cup in Doha he wants to make the impossible possible: win the Africans and get on the podium. In another substantive test, measuring with the Kenyan Conseslus Kipruto , the Moroccan Soufiane El Bakkali or the Ethiopian Getnet Wale would be very complicated, but in the obstacles anything can happen. «I didn't believe it before, but now I see it differently. I have worked hard to say that if they fail, if they are neglected, I will be there. I am only a second away from the best brand of the year, I am not overvaluing, ”says Carro, who has already seen“ the two faces of athletics ”.

Being in an Olympic Games was his dream, but in Rio 2016 he was injured in the first obstacle and, on returning, he found that his scholarship was drastically reduced, that New Balance gave him aside, that at 24 years the withdrawal was the most feasible option. Until he returned to the neighborhood. He returned to his usual club, the Suanzes, where he fled from the "quinquis and Nazi" abusers, where he fled from the mess and school failure, where he fled from family sadness over the death of his brother Álvaro . And little by little, little by little ...

«I left that loneliness. For a while I was desperate, I didn't know what to do, but my current coach [ Arturo Martín , the former coach of Arturo Casado ] knew how to show me that my career had just begun, that I should have patience. Listening to him was key. I did a little what I wanted and that led to many injuries. I had to learn to take care of myself, to avoid certain surfaces, not to use nails very much ... », the obstacleist ends with extreme kindness as proof that, no matter how fast he runs, they remain the same.

Schedules

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Saturday. The tests to follow are 10,000 m. men's march with Diego García, Álvaro Martín and MA López (10.25 h.); the 3,000 female obstacles with Irene Sánchez Escribano (22.25). Sunday. The 10,000 women's march with María Pérez (10.15), the triple with Ana Peleteiro (19.45), the 110 hurdles with Orlando Ortega (20.10), the heptathlon with María Vicente (final at 20.50) and the 3,000 male obstacles with Fernando Carro ( 22.15) will be the main appointments. The championship is broadcast entirely by Teledeporte.

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