The public is scarce in the stands of the Ataköy Arena and Adel Mechaal (32), who has lived in Istanbul for five days and married Emine Hatum Mechaal, a Turkish woman who had played in the 3,000m final the day before, justifies the gap:
-This is a country in economic depression and very affected by the earthquake. There are millions of people harmed, apart from the dead. And in Turkey, the base salary is 400 euros, and spending 60 to come see athletics is perhaps not the most appropriate thing now. In addition, culturally, many prefer to stay on the sofa at home, in front of the television, with their pipes and their coffee. And the Turks like to smoke, and in the stands of an athletics track you can't...
Adel Mechaal is a data earthquake.
In the belly of the Ataköy Arena, part of his mission accomplished (he is already in the 3,000m final, which takes place on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. Spanish time; he was second in his series, with 7m50s69), Mechaal speaks quickly, as much as has moved over the synthetic.
And in his speech he mixes numbers, statistical data, training and feelings.
He says that he has not yet traveled to Antioch, his wife's city, devastated by the earthquake. Emine Hatum Mechaal, applauded by the public the day before, has lost relatives.
Cousins, uncles, aunts...
-I preferred to disconnect so that the family situation would not affect me. I had to focus on this," she says.
And he also talks about Jakob Ingebrigtsen (22).
Twelve hours earlier, Ingebrigtsen has won the 1,500m title, tenth continental gold in his sports career, and now he has paraded in the 3,000m semifinal: he has passed the round after signing 7m56s57, a walk through the countryside for an athlete capable of going half a minute faster.
I don't know what to say about him. Yesterday (Friday) I saw his victory in the 1,500 on television. And it seems that he doesn't care about everything. He has an ego and self-confidence that is second to none. I saw him do 1m12s in the first 500, 1m11 in the second and 1m10s in the third. What do you want me to say...?
He shrugs.
And continues.
-Won in 3m33s (exactly, 3m33s95). Last week, we needed a hare and then Kerr's work to do 3m33s28 in Madrid. And he goes and does the same and alone. And if Gourley had pushed him harder in the final, he still had another gear to go. I saw a monster, something simply inhuman.
-But, is there a way to beat Ingebrigtsen? Mechaal is asked.
Silence.
More silence.
And cross your fingers.
I'd like to say yes. The flute sounds the same and he gets diarrhea. I don't know, I know she doesn't like hotel food and these days she's eating bananas. The same goes for laziness. At the very least, I'll try to prevent him from raising his arms 50m from the finish line.
And think about the sacrifices you must overcome as an athlete.
He thinks of his sessions on the treadmill, in the Sierra Nevada, contemplating the white mountains through the stained glass windows. He has spent the winter there, ten and a half weeks in total, sometimes descending to Granada because the campus track was useless, other times jogging through the fields in the company of a range of Spanish athletes:
-Alaiz, Fontes, De Arriba, Ndikumwenayo passed through there. We would go shooting together. Let's roll, huh? That we each do the series on our own and, the more secret, the better.
Katir was also there, a weightlessness in this European Championship, and the same Ingebrigtsen, all of them almost always rolling on the mat, also letting themselves be seen little.
This Sunday, Mechaal and Ingebrigtsen will already have time to look very close.
