• Medal: The IAAF awards the bronze to Orlando Ortega for a desperate resource from Spain
  • Surprise: The great night of Adrián Ben, the boy who learned by dodging palm trees

The marchers Álvaro Martín, Diego García and Miguel Ángel López leave their rooms the morning of the disaster, hours after the shipwreck in the 20 kilometers -the best, Martín, was twenty-second-, and they receive a succession of hugs that gives them back their spirits. The atmosphere in the selection has changed compared to a few years ago. The young people who have become leaders, from Fernando Carro to Javier Cienfuegos , from Eusebio Cáceres to Julia Takacs , have separated the wars between groups, the controversies over the calls and, above all, the suspicions of doping, but the results have not yet come . Although another future is possible and this could be discovered in three, four or five years, the reality of this Doha World Cup has confirmed that Spain is still in crisis. In the absence of the last day, where there will be no more representatives, the medallero is cruel: the second worst harvest ever with Tokyo 1991 and Daegu 2011 and only behind London 2017, when it went directly empty. The bronze of Orlando Ortega , with his incident with Omar McLeod , this time avoided another painful zero.

«We have a middle-upper class that is getting bigger. We had eight finalists when in 2015 there were only two and in 2017, five, but it is true that we are not yet where we want to be. Fighting for medals should always be the goal, but we must assess the improvement of this World Cup, ”said Raúl Chapado , president of the Spanish Federation, rightly and without reason. Because it is true, it has been the World Cup with more Spaniards in the top eight since 2007, but it could be better. It was only necessary to overcome the following data: a Spaniard, a single Spaniard made his best mark of the season in this championship. It was Adrián Ben , a debutante in the 800 meters, who also signed his best time ever and with his sixth place ended up being the second best of the expedition behind Ortega and next to Ana Peleteiro . The rest of the finalists suffered to secure the diploma, a consolation: they were Cienfuegos, seventh in hammer; Cáceres, seventh in length; Jesús Ángel García Bragado and Takacs, eighth in the 50 kilometers march; and María Pérez, eighth in the 20 kilometers march.

The last option of the faded podium was played by Peleteiro this Saturday in a triple-jump women's final to remember. As happened to Cáceres, with his best mark of the year (14.59 meters) he would not have been a medalist, but he would have left with different sensations. In the end he settled for a record of 14.47 meters. «A sixth place is fine, but I wanted more, I have a winning spirit. My foot hurt a lot, I felt discomfort when jumping and that's why I'm happy, I don't analyze it as a bad competition, ”said Peleteiro, who exemplified the contest of the best Spaniards in this World Cup: it was a good performance far from the outstanding one. In his contest, in fact, the focus was on his training partner in Guadalajara, the Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas , who threatened the historic world record of the Ukrainian Inessa Kravets (15.50 meters) and finally stayed at 13 centimeters . Again, like this year in Andújar, he offered the feeling of power with the record, but simply did not find his jump; next year will be, if you respect the injuries.

Before his farewell from Qatar, the technicians of the Spanish Federation, of course, underlined his joy at the absence of disasters, of clamorous errors within the selection. Beyond debutants such as Mariano García (800 meters), Daniel Arce (3,000 obstacles) or Irene Sánchez-Escribano (3,000 obstacles), there were few aspiring finalists who stayed in the first round. Taking off the march, where the weather conditions require clemency in the analysis, only two actions can be considered disappointing: the elimination of Adel Mechaal in the first round of the 1,500 meters and the bad race this Saturday of the 4x400 relay. Only two years after being fifth in London 2017, the team saved the last place by the hair. The leader, Óscar Husillos , who was stuck in a first eternal post cried, cried and apologized: «I dragged some discomfort for a long time and they may have reduced me. I knew it was an important day, but we will return, we are ambitious and next season we will do great things ».

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