Seville, Spain - Jesús España and Jackson Quiñónez produced the most significant performances by far at the Spanish Indoor Championships held over the weekend (17-18 February). In doing so the reigning European 5000m champion España and the Ecuadorian-born 60m Hurdles specialist Quiñónez propelled themselves into the medal picture for the European Indoor Championships to be held in Birmingham (UK) in ten days’ time.

España shows awesome fitness

The in-form 28-year-old from Valdemoro (Madrid) notched up an overwhelming win in the men’s 3000m held on Saturday (17) despite facing a 3:31.21 PB 1500m athlete like José Antonio Redolat, who turned 31-years-old on the event’s day. The race opened at a slow pace, 2:45.41 for the first kilometre, with the speed increasing gradually, 2:40.01 for the second km. España made his victorious move with 320m to go and built a sizeable margin over his pursuers in a matter of a few strides.

His splits for the final stages of the race were impressive as he covered the last km in 2:26.50 while the last 200m only took 26.9. Redolat - a former (2000) European 1500 indoor champion – finished a well beaten runner-up in 7:55.23 while Iván Hierro, who set the tempo of the race until España’s late burst of speed, clinched bronze with 7:55.89. After crossing the finish line the winner  waited for his brother Francisco’s arrival in fourth place and they joyfully embraced themselves.

España declared: “I had planned to sharpen the pace with 1000m left but Hierro was doing exactly that kind of job with laps in the 30-31 region so I decided to wait until the final 300m. Honestly, I could have run faster if necessary but I realised that nobody was able to respond to my change of gear and I relaxed a bit. I’m especially happy since my younger brother Francisco (European U-23 1500m bronze medallist) has placed fourth with a massive PB of 7:58.33”.

Asked to his expectations for Birmingham España said: “I keep a nice memory from that track as I came fourth four years ago at the Worlds. I’ll fight for a medal there and right now my target is the gold medal. It would be nice to reproduce my success at last summer’s European outdoors in Gothenburg so I’ll go for it.”

Tahri, Farah, Cragg…who will be your toughest opponent in Birmingham? “I believe that Farah is the most dangerous, he has had recent convincing wins over 3000m at the Nationals (7:50.87) and in the Birmingham mile (4:00.46) and will be performing on home soil” explained a knowledgeable 5000m European champion.

Quiñónez to make first venture into Europeans

Jackson Quiñónez sped to victory over the 60m Hurdles in 7.58 seconds, to put him equal third on the European indoor lists this winter, his time only bettered by Ukraine’s Serhiy Demydiyuk (7.53) and Britain’s Andy Turner (7.55). Drawn in lane 5, Quiñónez’s reaction time was far from impressive (0.169 seconds, the slowest among the finalists) but from the third hurdle majestically clean hurdling led him to succeed unchallenged in a season’s best of 7.58. He had a handsome advantage of 0.17 seconds over reigning European indoor silver medallist Felipe Vivancos.

Quiñónez, who holds a PB of 7.56, became eligible to compete for Spain in October after living in his adopted country for six years and looks forward to wearing the Spanish vest in Birmingham: “I've looked at what other European hurdlers have been doing and I definitely feel that I can be in the medal hunt. It would be a proud moment for me to give a medal to Spain. It’s true that I should improve my reaction time to be more competitive, I’m already working on it.”
 
Higuero prevails over Casado in the 1500m

The men’s 1500m provided the typical tactical championship race with successive pedestrian splits of 1:05.22 (400m) and 2:09.44 (800). With 150m to go it was Sergio Gallardo the leader but then first Arturo Casado overtook him and then Juan Carlos Higuero in turn passed Casado with hardly 40m left.

Higuero’s victory yesterday was his ninth 1500m national title (4 outdoors, 5 indoors) a more than respectable feat since throughout the years he has faced athletes such as Fermín Cacho, Reyes Estévez, Andrés Díaz, José Antonio Redolat and Arturo Casado.

“These extremely slow races are always difficult but I had great confidence in my final kick and it paid off again today. I already have got two silver medals at the European indoors (Vienna 2002 and Madrid 2005) so my aim in Birmingham can be nothing else but gold” said the confident double (1500 & 5000) bronze medallist in Gothenburg.

Martínez grabs his 15th shot put title in a row

Former World and European Indoor Shot Put champion Manuel Martínez snatched his 15th national indoor title thanks to a 19.21m fifth round release. The 32-year-old putter also has 13 outdoor national crowns!

Saturday’s win was his narrowest ever margin as José María Peña still led the contest in round 4 thanks to a 19.10 heave. Martínez, who became a father of twins last spring, is now working on a new technique, as he has adopted the rotational style but he admits that he still need some time to comeback to his usual 20.50-21.00m standards.

Beitia, Montaner and Agirre excel in the infield

World Indoor High Jump bronze medallist Ruth Beitia is arguably one of the main Spanish female medal hope for the next Europeans. The 28-year-old had a clean card up to and including 1.95 to go over 1.98 (SB) at her third try before failing three times at a would-be NR of 2.01. Marta Mendía took silver with a 1.90 clearance and the 19-year-old Gema Martín-Pozuelo improved her PB to 1.88.

In the Long Jump former World junior champion Concha Montaner had a consistent series of leaps topped by her opening 6.66m effort. Her complete series was: 6.66 - 6.53  - x -6.50 - 6.46 6.57. Montaner is only bettered on the European season list by four athletes who are eligible to compete in Birmingham and should be in medal contention there as she was at last year’s Worlds in Moscow where she place fourth with the same best mark (6.76) as Portugal’s bronze medallist Naide Gomes.

Naroa Agirre recorded her fourth national Pole Vault record in the current indoor season thanks to a 4.56 clearance which puts her in this year’s top-ten on the European list. Agirre also clinched bronze in the Long Jump with a 6.31 PB effort.

Elsewhere, Manuel Olmedo succeeded in the men’s 800m (1:49.49) while reigning European indoor 800m silver medallist Mayte Martínez took a comfortable win in the women’s event (2:04.01) but has not decided yet whether to compete over 800 or 1500m in Birmingham.

Glory Alozie, who took silver at the Moscow Worlds last season is having a below-par indoor season and had to settle for a tight 60m hurdles win (8.24 versus 8.26) from Arantza Loureiro, also silver medallist in the Long Jump with a 6.35 leap.

Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF