The Valencia Marathon, last ticket to Sapporo

The

going to become, together with the

Marathon,

the only great test that has survived in this 2020 of cancellations due to

.

Closed to popular athletes, it will have more participation of professional athletes who will undergo exhaustive health checks.

A great bubble of 270 runners who will start on Sunday, December 6 and more than a hundred will do so with one goal: to find the mark that would allow them to be selected to compete in the

in Sapporo next summer.

The mark set by the

is 2:11:30 for men and 2:29:30 for women, which few have been able to credit due to the lack of evidence.

“Of the 400 races that are usually set by the international calendar from March to November, barely thirty will have been held, and almost all of them are minor or in places inaccessible due to the pandemic.

We are determined not to throw in the towel and it has favored us that we are at the end of the calendar and the big spring marathons such as Boston, Paris or Rotterdam have been postponed ", explains the director of the Valencian event,

.

“That is why we wanted to combine the attempt to lower the record of the event with the opportunity for professionals to achieve the Olympic minimum.

That has been a bell that has attracted the federations to send us their best values.

Runners from 43 countries will look for the ticket to Japan.

“For example, we have been surprised by the flood of requests from South American athletes that we have had.

We can find that 70% of those who start the Olympic marathon have achieved the mark in Valencia ", admits the president of the International Association of Marathons (AIMS).

Among the Spanish, there are only three who have won the start in Sapporo:

and

, who were proclaimed champions of Spain in February, and

, having been tenth in the Doha World Cup.

The three will run in Valencia (Guerra, the Half Marathon) to continue improving their brand.

Camilo Santiago's dream

One of those who has to look for it to be selected is

.

In 2019 he was the first Spaniard to cross the finish line with a time of 2:10:02.

"This brand is at the Olympic level, but I know I have to lower it to be selected," he explains after a concentration he has done in Bronchales (Teruel), at 1,600 meters of altitude, along with two other athletes,

and

.

"It was like the

that Kenyans do before the big races in which they seek records," he jokes.

"I have been international several times, but I started running professionally at 28 and that at almost 40 I have the option of fighting to go to the Games is a dream," he confesses.

Valencia is almost his last chance, because the minimum has to arrive before May and the spring calendar is empty.

«Valencia is an oasis.

It will bring together the greatest elite in history but it will also allow Spanish professionals to measure our strength and fight for the Games.

It has not been easy being a professional athlete these months.

"A year ago I left Valencia in a cloud. Everything was going great for me and, suddenly, we couldn't even go out on the street. For the professionals it has been very hard to come back. Championships have been postponed, income has dropped, we left back to running stunted, with pain from inactivity ... Most of us are not fit again until after the summer. "

His feelings are very good for the test in Valencia and he hopes to drop from the 2:10 that would almost give him the passport to Japan, in the absence of the Federation selecting him.

"Most of us are in very similar times and I think everything will be decided from kilometer 30-32," he predicts.

Sanitary bubble

In addition to training, the athletes are vigilant to comply with the strict sanitary measures that the test will require, in which more than 700 PCR tests will be carried out on the runners and the organization's staff.

The athletes will have to do a PCR before traveling to Valencia, another will be done when they arrive in the city and one more on the Friday before the race.

They will be accommodated in individual rooms in two hotels and they must eat all meals in those same rooms, in addition to going to the departure area on foot to avoid contact.

"We have drawn up a 156-page protocol where everything that must be strictly complied with is collected. We want to be the best race of 2020 with all safety conditions," says Borao, who, for the first time in the 30 years that

organized the Marathon has had to make a call for the public to stay at home.

"Let them cheer from the balconies, but do not go out into the streets. It is the request that we make of them, for the good of everyone's health. You have to stay home."

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