At Istanbul's Ataköy Arena, the spirited (if sparse) home crowd watches the Femke Bol parade: sauntering to reach the women's 400 final, barely sprinting to run twice in 52s, once in the morning and once in the evening. late.
Just like the elegant Bol, the Dutch woman who is destroying the Cold War records (weeks ago, Bol broke the 400 indoor record, a record set by Jarmila Kratochvilova 41 years ago), they also parade through Istanbul, stately, heading to their finals, Laura Muir (1,500), Karsten Warholm (400) and Miltiadis Tentoglou at length.
Pedro Pichardo collects the gold in the triple.
Elastic and electric, the Portuguese projects up to 17.60m. It is the best world mark of the year, surpassing the 17.59m of the Spanish Jordán Díaz, who is still fallow, waiting to debut as a Spaniard in a big event.
And Nafissatou Thiam, who takes over the heptathlon, already has the world record (she goes up to 5,055 points, she snatches it from Natalia Dobrynska, who had it at 5,013 for eleven years).
Thiam, double Olympic gold, double world gold, double European gold, commands his kingdom.
All of them are referents of contemporary athletics, names of the present that become strong on any stage, in Europe or in the world, indoors or outdoors.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen (22) also moves among them, as important, as implacable as those.
The difference is that the Norwegian giant is involved in a metaphysical exercise.
(...)
Michael Johnson, another decisive figure, this one in the 1990s, has a theory.
He believes that a single title does not make a name:
–To be the greatest, you must look for extraordinary things. Gold is not enough for you.
Smug, Michael Johnson is pointing to himself: perhaps he is referring to the Atlanta'96 Games, when he had signed the 200-400 double.
Or perhaps, perhaps unintentionally, he is also referring to Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
When we ask him about all this, in the womb of the Ataköy Arena, Ingebrigtsen, who is already wearing his tenth European title (yesterday he won in 3m33s95, a championship record, he led from start to finish), answers us with monosyllables, enigmatic:
–Everything is a challenge, some are tougher than others.
–But four races in so few days, aren't they too many? – we asked him.
–There are several races, not too many.
It is in championship mode.
It does not give away licenses, it does not give away extensive reflections.
It is en route, between tests. This morning (8 am Spanish time) he will be in the 3,000 series (Adel Mechaal awaits him there). And minutes before attending La Vanguardia, the title of 1,500 has been awarded.
"Neill Gourley has stood up to him, hasn't he?" – asks the British press.
– Sure (no doubt).
Has everything turned out as you expected?
– Sure (no doubt).
-Gourley thinks that nobody is invincible.
– Sure .
What a contrast to the interview that, minutes before, Gourley himself, a British man, had given them, one of the surprises of this winter!
“I did what I had to do,” Gourley had said, second at last, in 3m34s23. It was about getting behind Ingebrigtsen and waiting and waiting. No one is invincible, and neither is he. My idea was to wait as long as possible, to wait until the end. Because, if he anticipated me and attacked him with 600m to go, it would get worse.
–It's that Ingebrigtsen's rhythm is progressive. It seems that it is not changing, but it is changing - agrees Jesús Gómez (31), twice bronze and now a chocolate medal -. When we run, we all pull where we can. And he, on the other hand, makes it easy. He is one of the greatest in history, and I have two podiums with him, and that's not bad because the value of the podiums is also marked by whoever accompanies you, don't you think?
About that, we can no longer ask Jakob Ingebrigtsen, as the Norwegian slips out of the mixed zone, rushes to his retirement, as fast as he has moved on the synthetic, where he has set the pace from the first 200, 57s behind the 400, at 1m55s the 800, at 2m24s the thousand.
Today he returns to the scene, perhaps sore from the effort of these days, undoubtedly comforted: they will say that he is vulnerable, but we will have to find out how.
