Spanish Championships in Castellón

The Spanish Championships that start today in Castellón (battered by all storms) will be almost decisive to configure the team that will compete in the Beijing World Championships starting from August 22.

The star of these Nationals will be Ruth Beitia, who competes this afternoon (20:35) and will be the Spanish athlete with the most titles in her specialty (eleven) if she wins the event. Only an injury would prevent her from adding one more gold medal than Isabel Mozún.

Ruth has a record of exactly two meters, the second best mark of the year after the 2.03 of the Russian Anna Chicherova, and aims for a medal at the World Championships in the Chinese capital.

The other major finals this Saturday will be the 10,000-meter walk (Miguel Ángel López, European champion and another contender for the podium in Beijing) and the 5,000 meters, with three athletes who have achieved the minimum mark: Ilias Fifa (13:05.61), naturalized this year; Alemayehu Bezabeth (13:16.98) and Jesús España (13:22.92).

On Sunday, a dramatic test in the 3,000-meter hurdles, with five athletes competing for three places in the World Championships: Roberto Alaiz (8:19.85), Fernando Carro (8:21.78), Sebastián Martos (8:22.38), Víctor García (8:22.46) and Abdelaziz Merzougui (8:26.34). —