Spain’s Mayte Martínez took a huge step forward in her athletics career by securing a relatively unexpected bronze medal in the women’s 800m at last summer’s World Championships in Osaka.

The 31-year-old Valladolid-native middle distance star has been in the hunt for a global outdoor medal – to add to her 2003 World indoor award in Birmingham – for no less than seven years when she first competed at a major outdoor championship at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Coming into the Osaka final she was the slowest athlete by far on the year’s world list for 800m among the eight finalists. Yet in major championships racing experience counts for more than one’s placement in that season’s lists and Martínez’s maturity and her proved competitiveness led her to the well-deserved reward.

The importance of the early rounds

Reflecting on her Osaka success Martínez explains: “of course, the main reason why I could make the podium was the kind of form I showed there but I have to recognise that Jepkosgei’s front running tactics in every round benefited me…since I was not drawn with her until the final,” she says smiling.

“The semifinal round proved to be crucial for the final’s result as every-athlete tried to keep with the Kenyan’s suicidal pace and I think they reached the final nearly empty.”

“When I saw three athletes running in 1:56 I thought, ‘I’m afraid I won’t be on the podium unless they run slower in the final’…but they did since only Jepkosgei managed to match that kind of rhythm in the final round.”

Things were not much different in the final as Martínez relates: “The Kenyan (Jepkosgei) went out very fast. Even with a fast split of 57.74 I was last at the bell and then I tried to match each move made by Morocco’s Hasna Benhassi. Mutola’s ambition led her to go out for the gold in the final and that braveness killed her. In that sense, I took advantage of that as I’m convinced that she would have likely clinched a medal should she have ‘only’ targeted a place on the podium, but that’s athletics, to be in the best possible form as you can and play your cards on the competition day.”

Immediately after romping home in third Mayte addressed her eyes to the stands, looked for her fellow Spaniards and asked through her fingers, ‘Have I been 3rd? “Of course, I knew that only two athletes had crossed the finish line ahead of me but I needed that someone confirm me that was true.”
  
7th, 5th, 3rd…and Berlin gold?

Martínez has always improved on her previous performances whenever she has contested a World Championships: she made the final for the first time in a global event in Edmonton 2001 with a 7th place to her credit. After missing the 2003 Paris Worlds through injury, the then reigning European silver medallist bounced back in Helsinki to take fifth. Following her Osaka bronze award the question now is: will she continue her steady progression at the Berlin 2009 Worlds aged 33 years of age?

“That’s extremely complicated, there are lots of superb athletes in the world and to beat everyone is almost a utopia but let’s be confident of the statistics”, laughs Martínez, who has also two European silver medals under her belt, 2002 Munich outdoors and 2005 Madrid indoors.

Not too confident of getting a medal…

At medal ceremonies athletes must wear the official team tracksuit – usually a different one from the training tracksuit - but Martínez simply had not thought about the possibility and so had not included it in her sports bag when she prepared it in the hotel before going to the stadium for the final.

“I already have put in a lot of things and thought ‘I don’t think the official tracksuit is going to be nece to get one in a rush but to no avail.”
  
Health setbacks a constant  

Martínez’s debut on the international scene came in Nyiregyhaza, venue of the 1995 European Junior Championships, where she came a praiseworthy sixth. However, the following year she fell injured and was later diagnosed from hyperthyroidism in 1998, a disease which threatened her athletics career to such an extent that doctors warned her of the possibility of not being able to compete again.

“It was an extremely tough time and I was tempted to give up my career. Fortunately, my family and my then fiancée and now husband and coach Juan Carlos Granado encouraged me not to surrender.”

But the glory days she enjoys now don’t mean that physical problems have disappeared: “I suffer from recurrent thyroid problems which led me to frequent anaemia. In addition, it’s not strange that I feel some discomfort on my low-back, in the sacral spine.”

On newly-minted World champion Janeth Jepkosgei

“I’m very keen on her running style. I think she can be a long standing number one in the women’s 800m given her age and talent. Although she has already done 1:56 in two consecutive seasons I’m sure she still has plenty of room for improvement”.

Asked whether a 100% fit Zulia Calatayud, the 2005 World champion, would have defeated Jepkosgei in 2005 World champion, would have defeated Jepkosgei in Osaka, an adamant Mayte says: “it’s true that Calatayud competed at the Worlds very far from her best form due to a recent injury but I believe that, even at her peak Jepkosgei would have taken gold anyway.”

“I really get on very well with the Kenyan. She even used to tell me – before the start – the 400m split she had scheduled in each competition held after Osaka (Zurich, Rieti, Berlin and Stuttgart) so that I could take advantage of that but the problem was that I simply could not afford to cover the first lap in 55 or 56 seconds as she used to run. At the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart she gave me a tribal neckcollar as a present, which was very kind from her.”

2008 expectations

Looking ahead of the Olympic year the 1.68m tall Spaniard says: “At this stage of the season (late December) my intention is to contest the World Indoors in Valencia at my specialist event but in the event of not being in the kind of form necessary to fight for a medal I would then line-up in the 1500m event as I did last year at the Europeans in Birmingham. Anyway, I don’t like to be without competing almost one year, that’s the reason I every year perform indoors.

Asked on her Beijing medal chances she says: “a podium place in the Olympics would cap my career. I’ll probably not be able to clock 1:55 ever but I realised in Osaka that running in 1:57 can be enough to be in the medal picture and have real chances to make the podium at any major event”.

Would you settle for a bronze medal right now? “Of course, it might seem I’m not very ambitious but any medal at an Olympic Games is a great accomplishment”.
  
Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF