Mo Katir, a bronze for his father, who arrived by boat: "He suffered a lot for me to be here"

• Chronicle Mo Katir returns Spain to its successful past: bronze in the 1,500 meters of the World Cup

"I dedicate it to my father. He suffered a lot for me to be here. This medal is his. Thanks to him I can dedicate myself to athletics."

Bronze around the neck,

breaks down a bit when talking about his father, it's the only time.

A man of few words, in a mixed zone he dissects the 1,500-meter race, analyzes it, details it, but he cuts it short when asked about anything else, about his family, about his life.

About his grandfather, a fan of

, still living in Alcazarquivir, the city of his birth in Morocco: "He always talks to me about El Guerrouj so that I don't believe it, but I'm sure that for him I'm number 1 ".

About Mula, in Murcia, the city where he grew up, where he lives and where he trains in a field: "There is no athletics track, but I am very good there. I know where to go to train and I go to Murcia and Sierra Nevada a lot."

After having collected his medal on the World Cup podium, Katir rushes to the locker room because in just a few hours he will fly to Spain, but he stops to underline his dedication.

"My father focused me on sports, he wanted me to be an athlete, to enjoy things like this. First he signed me up for soccer, but I didn't like it. Then athletics," says Katir, 24, and, in the story of his father, his.

World Athletics Championship

1,500 meters.

Mo Katir returns Spain to its successful past: bronze

• Writing: JAVIER SÁNCHEZ (Special correspondent) Eugene

Mo Katir returns Spain to its successful past: bronze

Even before Katir was born, his father arrived in Spain in a small boat and went to work in Huesca, where he was able to reunite the family when the medalist was already five years old.

Until then, he lived with his mother in Larache, near Alcazarquivir, waiting, waiting.

From then on, he trained as an athlete.

First in Huesca, where he played as a striker in a small team, Siglo XXI Huesca, and shortly after in Mula, where he was discovered in a school race.

, president of the Mulasport Athletics Club, saw him with that plant, so lanky, so fast, he invited him to the entity and offered to train him.

There he stood out quickly, but he lacked his passport.

He requested it in 2015 by letter of nature and in the face of administrative silence he endured, endured and endured without competitions until he received it on the last day of 2019. Since then, already under the orders of

, also a coach of the eighteenth-century

, it is a star.

His are the Spanish records of 1,500, 3,000 and 5,000 meters and his could be a medal in the 5,000 meters of the Tokyo 2020 Games -he was a finalist-.

"Now I want more. I'm going to Spain quickly because on Sunday I want to concentrate on Sierra Nevada for the European Championship. I want another medal in the European Championship," says a simple man, a lover of poetry, by Machado, who also had the courage to write it.

A man, above all, calm.

As could be seen in his career.

"We're going to enjoy"

Despite the high pace imposed by the Kenyans,

and

, Katir stayed in last place in the group and let things go.

The Africans wanted to wear down the favourite, Norway's

, and there was no point in meddling.

He did not do it.

And only on the last lap, launched by the British

, he recovered places until he overtook Kipsang and Cheruiyot in the final corner and got on the podium.

"From the beginning I felt very strong, that's why I stayed behind. I kept my strength, I knew that many would go down at the end and that I would have options", analyzed the third in the World Cup behind Ingebrigtsen, yes, but also the British

who, surprisingly, defeated the Norwegian and took the gold.

"Before the race I spoke with [

to [his representative] and he reassured me. He told me that I had already done a lot, that I broke records for Spain, that he had to believe in me. I came out very relaxed In fact, I have told my teammates: 'We are going to enjoy it'", noted Katir in reference to

, who finished fourth, just behind him, and

, who was eleventh.

With the medalist as a prop, the three revived this Tuesday a Spanish tradition in the 1,500 meters that seemed extinct.

The history written by

or

.

The chain of joys that had stopped in 1999, the last Spanish medal in the distance in a World Cup.

The fable of the open arms at the 1992 Barcelona Games that made many boys and girls become fond of athletics.

There were so many before him and Katir continues today.

Dedicated to his father.

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