Twelve athletes qualified for the long jump final at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, set for Tuesday from 9:16 p.m. and broadcast on Teledeporte, and three of them are Spanish. Eusebio Cáceres led the group, marking his seventh appearance at a European Championships, a total that ties the record held by Jesús España and Chuso García Bragado.
Cáceres ties European Championships record
Cáceres, who is about to turn 35, said he keeps competing simply because he enjoys it, and said he has had time to rebuild after years of fighting injuries. Working under coach Iván Pedroso, he said he identified the issue that had made him feel he was fighting with the pit, and said he is exploring a new way of jumping.
Two weeks before the Spanish Championships, Cáceres suffered a hamstring tear but still secured his spot in Birmingham. In qualifying he reached 8.24 meters on his second attempt after opening with 7.94, close to his target, before adjusting his run-up perfectly on the board. He said he controlled the jump, got his hip into position and felt good. He added that he had expected a slightly shorter distance, so seeing 24 made him very happy and left him calm heading into the final.
The mark was his best of the year, though it will not count officially because of an illegal tailwind reading of plus 3.1 meters per second. It ranked fourth among the qualifiers and secured Cáceres his seventh final in his seventh European Championships appearance. He has finished fourth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the 2013 World Championships, the 2014 and 2022 European Championships and the 2019 European Indoor Championships. He said few athletes deserve to win a medal more than he does, adding that in consistency he already has the gold.
Guerra and Lescay complete Spanish trio
Jaime Guerra jumped 8.14 meters on a day when wind conditions played a significant role. He said the conditions were strange, since he had trained jumping with a tailwind throughout his preparation but faced a headwind on his first attempt, missing the board entirely and landing well short. He said he managed 7.62 meters and expected to convert his second attempt once the wind turned favorable, which is what happened. Guerra is the reigning Spanish champion. Lester Lescay completed a historic Spanish triple in the event with a jump of 8.03 meters.
800m and other events
The 800 meters proved one of the toughest events of the day, from the heats through to the final. Mohamed Attaoui ran true to his usual style, tracking the field from behind before accelerating on the final lap to take the lead and control the race from there. David Barroso ran in a demanding third heat in which he was boxed in and advanced on time, while Pablo Sánchez-Valladares failed to reach the semifinals.
Belén Toimil was also eliminated, finishing 14th in the shot put with a best throw of 16.79 meters. Ángel González was knocked out in the 400m heats, finishing sixth in his heat in what was his European Championships debut. Maribel Pérez advanced to the semifinals of the women's 100m, scheduled for this evening from 9:10 p.m. on Teledeporte.
