María de Valdés, a 24-year-old from Malaga, has been proclaimed European open water runner-up in the 5 km test at the Rome championships. The swimmer from Fuengirola was leading the test from the beginning, the three laps of the race, developed in Ostia with a very strong swell. In the final -mixed, due to the demands of the program due to bad weather-, Carlos Garach was seventh.
De Valdés was one of the strengths of the Spanish delegation to achieve a medal in some Europeans in which in-line swimming has not shone. In open water, the Andalusian long-distance runner had shown her potential with the 5th place in the recent World Cup in Budapest on June 27, beating experienced swimmers such as the French Aurélie Müller and the Italian Giulia Gabbrielleschi, who preceded her on the podium in Ostia. The gold went to the Dutch Sharon Van Rouwendaal, by only 1.5 seconds over the Spanish.
"I'm super happy because I've been fighting for it all the race and I wanted to fight for that podium, although I knew it was very difficult because it's a high level and in the end the whole season has had its reward", said an emotional María de Valdés, who recognized that at the last buoy, where she was first, she had “strayed a little because she couldn't see the last straight well”.
De Valdés was leading from the start of the race, pulling hard. "I wanted to give it my all from the beginning, no matter what happened, that's why I've been training very hard," commented the Malaga native, who dedicated her first European medal to her coach, her family and her psychologist. The woman from Malaga still aspires to another medal this Sunday in the 10 km Olympic event.
In the women's final, Ángela Martínez was 16th. In the men's, Carlos Gallach finished ninth and Guillem Pujol was 13th.
That of María de Valdés is the 11th Spanish medal in a European open water event, the seventh in women, and the first in 8 years since the bronze medal that Mireia Belmonte won in her long-distance (5km) incursion into the berlin championships 2014
