As if it were an apocalyptic curse, the end of the days of the track march, the sky of Budapest collapses on the Hungarian capital and the brave specialists, perhaps an endangered specimen, leave the warm-up and return to the chamber of calls.
to wait
Victim of the storm, the departure is postponed, and that rhythm gives rise to many thoughts, including negative ones.
What will become of the athletic march in the future, that discipline whose future is in danger, reviled as it is by the high federative and bureaucratic authorities?
Álvaro Martín (29) does not submit to these troubles, he does not torment himself.
And when the downpour finally subsides and light comes on in the Plaza de los Héroes and the wind stops and everything tempers, the Extremaduran phenomenon explodes.
It is kilometer 15 and the double European champion (2018 and 2022), never a medalist in World Cups or in Games, accelerates and separates from his groupmates, and looks for the backs of the Japanese Ikeda, the Turkish Korkmaz and the Brazilian Bonfim , who were ahead, and he goes after them, and surpasses them, and then he appears in the lead and no one is going to stop him: neither the rivals, nor the storms, nor the bureaucrats who consider erasing the athletic march of the face of the earth.
The world is yours, by Álvaro Martín, the walker who claims the future of athletic marching in offices, in front of microphones and on the asphalt.
He prevails in 1h17m32s, a true marvel that involves marching at a partial of 3m52s for each kilometer, a tough demand even for notable runners.
-Calm down, calm down -Luis Saladíe, a walker in other times, today director of organizations of the Spanish Federation, tells me, while he contemplates the events from the VIP box.
The chronicler has returned to kilometer 15 and there is Saladíe, shouting as he confesses to having goosebumps, and is exalted when contemplating the exhibition of Álvaro Martín, the lanky and sharp guy who has positioned himself in the lead and, stubborn, leaves the rest.
"Calm down, calm down, there are many kilometers to go," Saladíe insisted.
But those same troubles vanish when you look back at the road.
The determination of Álvaro Martín is solid, the man who walks with long strides, his neck stretched forward, his arms waving in harmony, he never doubts, he never looks back, his rivals know nothing, if it is going well or if it is going badly, because he hides it under his imperturbable gesture, his cap and his sunglasses.
No one will catch up with you.
Not even the Swedish Karlstrom, bronze a year ago in Eugene, now silver, who finishes seven seconds behind.
Not even the lightweight Brazilian Bonfim, bronze at fifteen seconds
Much less Alberto Amezcua, the Spaniard who finishes 13th although with the Olympic minimum that has made his coach, Daniel Jacinto (1h19m28s), suffer so much, nor the other Spaniard, Diego García Carrera, now 39th.
-When I have attacked, I have not only done it to catch a medal. I have done it to catch the gold. And when I saw myself ahead, I no longer thought to look back," says Álvaro Martín later.
"I knew he was very strong, but I have always asked him not to take risks, to be humble," says José Antonio Carrillo, the coach of Álvaro Martín, the man who has shaped his career in the training centers of the peninsula, the Blume de Madrid, the Sierra Nevada CAR, the Font Romeu CAR, its last stop before exploding in Budapest-. But when he has decided to go forward, then he already knew that he could not be caught.
No one hunts Martín, who winks a couple of times in the last stretch, when he already sees himself with the gold: he appropriates a flag and gestures to the VIP box, where Luis Saladíe and also Raúl Chapado, the president, look at him of Hispaniola: lately relations between Martín and Chapado have cooled.
The marcher interprets that the president does not defend the future of the athletic march in its fair measure.
-My gesture? Do not interpret it as a bad gesture towards the president. At that time he was in the race and enjoying the moment. The president has congratulated me, I think he is happy about my victory, I will have time to talk with him and talk about the future.
The most immediate future is the women's 20 km, this Saturday (7:15 a.m.), another opportunity for the Spaniards, now with María Pérez, and the 35 km on Thursday, where both Álvaro Martín and María Pérez repeat.
Faced with so many expectations, how to retire the athletic march, if throughout history it has collected four of the eight world gold medals in Spanish athletics?
(Valentí Massana and Jesús Ángel García Bragado, in 1993; Miguel Ángel López, in 2015).
-What cannot be is that ours do not defend us. You can't go to trial without a lawyer -says Diego García Carrera, saddened.
