–I know that Mo (Katir) writes things, poetry. But to tell you the truth, I've never read anything of his. What he writes, he keeps for himself – Gabi Lorente tells me.
Gabi Lorente (32) is a calm and observant young man. He has his hands in his pockets, looking like a scholarship student at the University of Oregon.
And yet, technicians are already learning from him.
How much does this graduate in Sports Sciences have to tell you, who until a year ago worked as a baker!
Gabi Lorente is the coach of the 19th-century Mariano García and he is also the coach of Mo Katir (24), the man who won the bronze in the 1,500 m this Tuesday, the second Spanish podium in Eugene (after Asier Martínez's bronze in the 110 hurdles), first Spanish medal of the discipline since the bronze of Reyes Estévez in Seville, in 1999.
–But, what topics does Katir deal with in his poems?
–I only know that he writes about nature, what he sees, what he feels... –says Gabi Lorente.
Of course, this technician is not a busybody.
(...)
As soon as the bronze was hung around his neck, Mo Katir shouted:
-I want to go!
–Where do you want to go? –we asked him later, in the mixed zone.
–To Mula, to Murcia and above all, to Sierra Nevada. I want to get there on Sunday and be calm. {"type":"Twitter","url":"https://twitter.com/COE_es/status/1549654388951638019"}
Up there, in the Sierra Nevada, Katir finds peace for his poems. But above all, he finds peace for his training.
(Well, a month from now, the Europeans in Munich appear).
-It is that in Sierra Nevada it is very good, and I have the best conditions and a good athletics track. Let's see when they put a clue in Mula! –says Katir, very skinny, long hair, deep gaze, mixed features, he comes from Morocco (father) and Egypt (mother), he was a five-year-old boy when the family left Larache to settle in Mula.
There were five children and their parents. The father was a bricklayer and Mo, today an athlete, went from here to there. Mo was a rather opaque kid at school, focused on football.
What child has not done it in our country?
–He played for Huesca Siglo XXI (centre forward). But I didn't like it too much and at the age of 12, my father wanted me to focus more on this world of sports and above all, on athletics.
Races were organized at school in Mula and Katir did not run, he flew. Cristóbal Carlos Ramírez, a professor there, told him:
-You have a good plant, talk to your father and get into this -says Katir-. And look now, third in the world...
The father said yes, go ahead.
-My father has suffered a lot, this goes for him.
And the boy was doing, he got into that world, he became an athlete.
And at full speed he ran through the streets of Mula and the surrounding mountains, and was advancing in the lower categories: he beat regional youth, junior and sub-23 records and his grandfather lowered his smoke.
-Very well, but number 1 is El Guerruj -the man, the grandfather, insisted.
– And why did he do it? –We asked Katir.
I guess he didn't want me to believe it. I told him: 'number 1 is me'. But my grandfather was right. After all, until now I didn't have any medals, right? Now it is something else. And I know my grandfather is happy.
Grandfather is happy and so is Katir, who looks at the medal that hangs around his neck and nods:
-This feeling...
–You always said that you preferred a record to a medal –we told him.
(Katir has the Spanish records of 1,500, 3,000 and 5,000).
–Yes, it is true. But now, with this one, better than the record!
And then I turn to Gabi Lorente, the Erasmus-looking technician, and ask her:
–How did you do it?
Well, until a year and a half ago, Katir was an interesting middle-distance runner (he signed 3m36s in the 1,500), but not the talent we have now.
"Honestly, I don't know what he had done with his previous technician," Lorente tells me. But when he came to see me, I told him: 'Where you are, you're not doing too bad either. Are you sure?'. And he nodded. And what I saw is that he was a great roller, but he was missing a speed point. And we have been working on this last time.
And everyone appreciates the jump.
Katir and his father and his grandfather and the mythomaniacs of athletics in our country do it: the ascetic is already in the orbit of the Abascal, González, Cacho, Estévez, Viciosa, Díaz, Higuero, Casado...
And anyone imagines him lying in a cabin, composing verses in the dark and in silence, reliving what he has just experienced.
