Spain, country of sprinters: silver in the 4x400 relay

• First medal Mariano García, world champion 'indoor' of the 800 meters: the gold that will never leave the town

Bruno Hortelano

had not forgotten the promise he made at that European Championship in Berlin almost four years ago.

"I owe them one," he said then and this Sunday he fulfilled it.

In that 4x400 relay, his teammates gave him a gold baton and he reached the finish line with the bronze as consolation.

This time he did the opposite.

In the 'indoor' World Cup in Belgrade, as the first reliever, he placed Spain in orbit, on the free street, a preferred space, and launched it towards a confirmation silver.

Who'd say?

This country that was a field for long-distance runners, skinny men, strong souls, Olympic champions of about 1,500 meters or marathon world champions, is today a country of sprinters, muscles, power, vertigo.

To that bronze in the 2018 European Championship and the subsequent silver in the 2019 indoor European Championship, there is now a silver in an indoor World Cup, which has never been experienced.

This time Hortelano arrived with a gang of rookies and all held the position.

, second reliever, in his debut with the national team, elbowed to stay ahead;

, third reliever, recovered the first position that he had lost to Belgium, Holland and Poland in an impossible last stretch;

and

, the last reliever, only let Belgian

, a world medalist, pass him by.

"I am incredibly happy, but above all I am especially proud of this team. We have come out with enthusiasm, with confidence, with a lot of love between us. We came with the intention of being world champions, we have given everything", Hortelano summed up about a group who arrived this time away from the spotlight, with the absence of

or

, but prepared after a long concentration in Valencia.

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