European The moment of the María Vicente generation: "It's their turn and, if not, to endure the downpour"
The illusion is not the same, but
silver
and
bronze
count the same.
Spain
premiered its medal table this Monday at the
European Championships in Munich
in the very first event that was held, the marathon, and did so in the
team mode
, a strange competition, its existence inexplicable, although no one is preventing the party now.
The women's team led by
Marta Galimany
finished in second place and the men's team led by
Ayad Lamdassem
finished in third place.
It was the goal of the team as a whole, although a podium finish was also expected from Lamdassem, who arrived with the best record of all the participants.
In the women's event Galimany let the best go with more than
10 kilometers
to go , but in the men's Lamdassem held on and held on, even leading, until at the decisive moment he fell behind and finished sixth.
Both were the best Spaniards, but they depended on their teammates to celebrate.
At the finish line it was their turn to count: the times of the first three from each country would be added to give a women's silver and a men's bronze to the team.
Two newly minted medals.
Because until the last edition, the
Berlin European Championship 2018
, they were not given and were only added for statistical entertainment.
It was the so-called
European Cup
, a minor competition.
Now the European Athletics Federation (
European Athletics
) decides to give it a patina of officiality, although the relevance remains what it is.
A silver and a bronze that could be the beginning of a magnificent performance by Spain, but that constitute a trap for the own comparison with previous editions.
In fact, there are many countries that ignore these medals and others that do not even dispute it.
Of the 48 participants in the European Championship, only nine -Denmark, France, Israel, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Great Britain, Portugal and Italy- summoned the necessary marathon runners to compete.
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Articles Javier Sanchez