BUDAPEST: Alvaro Martin and Maria Perez completed Spain’s domination of the race walks at the World Athletics Championships on Thursday by adding gold in the 35 kilometres events to their victories in last weekend’s 20km races.

Martin held off Ecuador’s Brian Pintado to win the men’s race in two hours, 24 minutes and 30 seconds, while Perez clocked a championship record time of 2:38:40, finishing more than two minutes ahead of defending champion Kimberly Garcia Leon.

Perez’s victory was rarely in doubt as she dominated Peru’s Garcia Leon, who finished in 2:40:52. European champion Antigoni Drisbioti of Greece completed the podium with a season’s best 2:43:22.

“I had this problem with my hamstring after the 20km race and I was still considering whether to start at the 35km but I managed to get through,” said Perez, who smashed Garcia Leon’s 35 km world record by nearly half a minute in May.

“The hard work and pain paid off … This is a huge achievement not only for me but for the whole Spanish team .”

After early leader Aurelien Quinion of France had dropped off the pace and was then disqualified, Martin shared the lead with Pintado and Japan’s Masatora Kawano entering the final 4km before making the break with less than 2km remaining.

He set a national record and crossed the line four seconds before Pintado, with Kawano posting a season’s best 2:25:12 to finish third. Defending champion Massimo Stano of Italy was seventh in 2:25:59.

“I am so tired,” Martin said. “I was fourth in the Olympic Games and it was very tough to get so close to an Olympic medal. It’s wonderful now to be a double world champion in Budapest. I see Maria is first too in the women’s race, so today is a great day for Spain.”

WARHOLM SAVES NORWAY’S HONOUR

On a pulsating Wednesday night, Norway’s Karsten Warholm produced a fighting performance to regain his 400m hurdles title but team-mate Jakob Ingebrigtsen once again fell short in the 1500m.

Warholm declared “that is what we do best, us Vikings” after holding off the field to win his third world title. He pulled away down the finishing straight after being pressured by perennial rival Rai Benjamin on the final bend, to time 46.89sec.

Having won in London in 2017 and in Doha in 2019 he could only finish seventh in Eugene last year after returning from injury prematurely.

For Ingebrigtsen it was a case of Groundhog Day as he once again started favourite only to see a British runner pip him to the line.

This time though instead of Jake Wightman — injured this year — it was Josh Kerr who took gold.

Kerr stuck to the Norwegian and pounced coming round the bend. Ingebrigtsen battled but that Viking spirit was not enough to get his nose back in front.

The two women’s finals were polar opposites of each other.

Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic finally secured her first global title in the 400m after settling for silver at the Tokyo Olympics and last year’s world championships, timing a national record of 48.76sec.

The pole vault, though, was a back and forth duel between Olympic champion Katie Moon of the United States and Australian Nina Kennedy.

In the end they shared a hug and the gold medal on a mark of 4.90m instead of holding a jump-off, echoing the men’s high jump at the Tokyo Olympics when Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy agreed to share the honours.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2023