From the Mercure hotel to the Ataköy Arena, the half-hour walk is pleasant. Along the way, the chronicler stops at one of the many stands of the vigorous Istanbul Çadesi and takes home a Turkish pastry, a nice treat on a cool morning.
The Ataköy Arena rests next to the Sinan Erdem Spor Salonu, the home ground of Anadolu Efes, but we have not come to talk about basketball, but about athletics.
It's 9:50 a.m. on Friday, an early morning for a sprinter, and the amazing Karsten Warholm (27) doesn't care exactly the same.
This is the first round of the 400m and the Norwegian starts from lane 5, enters the open lane first, runs in multi-jumps, like a jumper or like an acrobat in the circus, crosses the 200 in the lead, in 21s28, and takes a nap rest of the race.
Taking a nap, he finishes in 45s75, a prodigy for anyone and a routine day at the office for Warholm, who has already marked his territory.
He lives in the loft.
Perhaps with the intention of impressing the rest, perhaps inspired by Warholm, Iñaki Cañal (25) jumps into the frames to win his series (46s26) and catch a good lane in this afternoon's semifinal (starting at 5:35 p.m., local time). Spanish), but in his momentum he loses his balance and stumbles and falls on the synthetic.
Although he stands up with a jerk, like a spring, the accident has left its mark on him. His right shoulder is red, his skin scratched, and he suffers a clavicle subluxation and his body hurts and he will no longer be there this afternoon, in the semifinal.
Óscar Husillos (29) is looking for the same thing as Cañal, a good fairway for the afternoon semifinal, but falls asleep at the start and crosses the 200 in 2154 seconds, three meters behind the huge Matej Krsek, who blocks his way and prevents reaching the head.
He is second, in 46s28, five hundredths behind Krsek.
"I'm in a very bad mood, I say it bluntly," calls out Husillos, who curses himself and with good reason.
Historically, Husillos has been once gold and twice silver at indoor Europeans, he's good at running indoors, so he knows what he's talking about: he knows the value of fairways and the need to push through the outside lanes , not for 1, 2 or 3.
-With a lot of luck I will have street 4, and we all know the penalty that this has. I suppose that at the beginning I relaxed and seeing that the rival (Krsek) was going for the free lane and for all, I let him in. I preferred to be comfortable, even shortening my stride, and I looked strong in the last 100, and I thought it would happen to him, but I ran the curve on the outside and that affected me. They are only five hundredths, but they are a world ahead of the final this afternoon, because that is how I see this semifinal, as a final...
(He's in luck: in the semifinal he gets street 4).
Injured in the right hamstring, with his thigh heavily bandaged, Manuel Guijarro (24) collapsed in the last series and finished fifth (49s77) and, through tears, lamented in the mixed zone.
-So much preparing to get here and for this to happen, and for people to beat you with whom in normal conditions you would be fighting...
In the length qualification, the Catalan Jaime Guerra (23), one of the sensations of the year, goes up to 7.99m (he has jumped 8.08m this winter), fourth mark of the morning, and asks himself: ' why not?'.
-Why not think to infinity and even beyond, like Buzz Lightyear? -it is said in the mixed zone.
(The final, with Tentoglou and Montler, takes place on Sunday at 10:12, Spanish time; Iker Arotzena, with 7.57m, is left out).
Águeda Marqués (third in her series, in 4m23s39) and Esther Guerrero also reached the final, in this case the 1,500m.
Guerrero (33), fighting as his last name and DNA dictates, again in a great championship after his serious muscle injury last winter, wins his test with solvency, in 4m10s48, but says he has experienced contradictory feelings.
-I have not found myself as well as I would have liked. The English (Ellie Baker, second) wouldn't let me take the rope and made me go open and uncomfortable. But going uncomfortable and finishing in 4m10s is not bad at all.
(The women's 1,500m final is held on Saturday afternoon, at 8:00 p.m. Spanish time).
Jaël Bestué (22) also comes out on top.
She does it in minute 60, after going wrong, stuck in the studs, before rebuilding to finish second in her series, in 7s30.
-What a mess of exit. And even so I have run well, without twitching -she says.
-And what caused this bad start?
-I was focused, but we've spent half an hour in the call room, and it's hard to keep focused. I didn't do it on purpose, I assure you.
This afternoon he returns to the scene, at 7:05 p.m. If he accesses the final, he will play it at 9:45 p.m.
