Asier Martínez culminates his stampede: bronze in his first World Cup

• Interview Asier Martínez: "Orlando Ortega is not a reference for me. I have treated any other European more"

The top.

A year and a half ago,

was a promising athlete, an amateur;

he had not yet debuted with Spain.

He is now a World Cup medalist.

His incredible progression from training competitions to the Tokyo Olympics final in the blink of an eye culminated in Eugene on Sunday with a bronze.

The shout of him in the celebration, his tears after the goal, said it all: as he admitted in the previous one, he still does not believe it.

But he should believe it by now.

Because, in fact, before the final shot, he was already a favorite for a medal.

Such has been the improvement of him in recent times.

In the moments before the competition, two accidents occurred that placed Martínez one step away from the podium.

First of all, during the warm-up, the Olympic champion, Jamaican

made a bad gesture at the fourth fence and was injured.

And secondly, in the first start the American

got up from the studs just one hundredth before the legal limit and was disqualified.

Two accidents.

Two gaps at the start that Martínez took advantage of to do his thing.

Few hurdlers are safer.

Few hurdlers are more reliable.

Although he threw the first fence, something unusual for him, he ran as always in progression, from less to more, to enter the finish line behind the Americans

and

, but well ahead of the rest, especially the Polish

, perhaps the only one who threatened him.

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