-As Carlos Alcaraz would say, the best tennis player in the world, who is from my land: you have to put your head, heart and balls into it -says Mo Katir, who got off three days ago from the 1,500m final, now classified for the 5,000m final and, to mention, more expressive on the track, distributing angry gestures after winning his series, and more verbiage in the mixed zone.
This time, Katir (25) does not elude the press, not as he had done on the day he said goodbye to the 1,500m final.
He does not deny the special envoys, the hard workers of the notebook who await him in the belly of the National Stadium in Budapest, we wait for him hiding elbows, sighing headlines.
This time, rather, Katir apologizes.
More or less.
Actually, he brings the speech prepared, he brings it from home.
And after quoting Alcaraz, he adds:
-Luckily my environment is wonderful. I have my parents, my coach and my girlfriend, who always help me. Because when they kick you out like they fired me in 1500, after four months away from home and finding myself in the best shape of my life, it’s normal for me to spend a sad day and not feel like talking. That’s why I preferred to be alone with my head and give myself one day to be me again.
Beside him, smiles Ouassim Oumaiz, the other Spaniard who has earned a place in the final of the 5,000, where Jakob Ingebrigtsen and his alter ego, Narve Gilde Nordás, and also the sensational Guatemalan Luis Grijalva and the three Ethiopians await him, Kejelcha, Aregawi and Gebrhiwet.
-I wish it was a slow race. It would suit me very well for my terminal velocity. But there are three Ethiopians in the final and they will not allow it -says Katir.
Just like Katir, Adrián Ben also makes you want to talk.
Although his comes standard.
Ben (25) is second in his round and earns a pass to the final after breaking, for the first time in his career, the 1m44s barrier (1m43s92).
And while Ben speaks, the journalists listen, in the background, to the voices of the Jamaican delegation: reporters and technicians who shout excitedly in the suffocating mixed zone. They are living them in all colors.
First, the Jamaicans wail and cringe: the Greek Miltiadis Tentoglou, always sharp and combative, flies up to 8.52 in his last attempt at the length and, with a stroke of the pen, knocks down Jamaican Wayne Pinnock, leader until that last round (8.50m), and also tombs the rest of the Jamaicans, Tajay Gayle (8.27m, bronze) and Carey McLeod (8.27m, chocolate medal).
Of the Americans, there is no news in this test. The best is William Williams, eighth and a name that invites jocularity, which does not even reach eight meters (7.94m).
What happened to Beamon, Lewis, Powell…?
And then the Jamaicans live the glory. In a flash, Danielle Williams scores the 100m hurdles (12s43) and Antonio Watson, the 400m (44s22), what a day for Americans who don’t scratch the ball, and almost all of that happens while Adrián Ben attends us.
“Please don’t nobody ask me where I’ll be in the final,” says Ben.
-Well, let’s talk about today.
-Come on, because today’s summary is that he got out very quickly, almost 48 seconds into the first lap (Max Burgin, then exhausted, crosses it in 49s41), and that’s almost my personal best in 400. But I don’t wanted to think or look partial. I only thought about keeping street one while he told me: ‘I’m going, I’m going, I’m going’. And at 600 I have seen that people were moving and I have moved with Barontini (dismounted) and Hoppel (goes through times, in 1m44s04), and in the last straight line I have seen gaps, Hoppel opened up and did not close, and around there I’ve slipped to second place.
-You have been sixth in the 2019 Doha World Cup and fifth in the 2020 Tokyo Games. It will not be due to inexperience, we told him.
-What will not be is out of fear. If a person wants to be world champion, he cannot be afraid in a semifinal. Also, I have very good friends. Those who have come to see me told me: ‘if you don’t qualify for the final, come with us. And if you qualify, enjoy it’. Both options were good.
And while Mohamed Attaoui and Saúl Ordóñez lament their misfortune, both having dropped out of the 800 final, Femke Bol (23) finally appropriates her first World Cup gold: immutable in appearance, like a skater sliding on the synthetic and on the hurdles, protected by the roar of the public that adores her, the Dutchman goes up to 51s70 to win the 400m hurdles. These are her times.
