Athletics World Cup | Bakkali snatches the gold from Girma and Arce touches the finalist position

2023-08-22 22:18:29

Spain was one position away from adding its fifth finalist in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest when Dani Arce finished ninth in a final of 3,000 meters obstacles in which the Moroccan Soufiane El Bakkali played his cards to perfection to achieve his second consecutive gold and leave the Ethiopian Lamecha Girma, silver in the last three editions, with honey on the lips.

It was a really complicated final, with two athletes above the rest at least theoretically as the brand new Ethiopian universal record holder Lamecha Girma or the current Moroccan Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali along with rivals as complicated as the Kenyans Kibiwott and Koech or especially the Abyssinian Wale.

With Eliseo Martín’s historic bronze in the World Cups in Paris’03 on the far horizon, the most realistic objective for the man from Burgos was to achieve a place as a finalist like the ones from Montison himself in Seville’99 (sixth) and in Osaka’07 (seventh ) or the sixth place of Luis Miguel Martín Berlanas 20 years ago and the fourth in Edmonton’01. Another Spanish athlete was sixth in 2001 and 2005, but his relationship with doping invites us to ignore his name.

In the best moment of his career with a personal best included (8: 10.63), Arce had assured Prensa Ibérica that he would go out “with intelligence and without going crazy at the beginning”, but that at the moment of truth he was willing “to go with everything and take risks without caring that he might puncture and end up blown”.

The race started slowly with Kenyan Leonard Kipkemoi Bett setting the pace as he passed through the first thousand (2:50.41) while the man from Burgos was traveling last, giving the feeling of having the situation very controlled. The problem is that he gave up too much ground and when the group stretched that space stretched to about 10 meters.

Anyway, it was clear that the final would be decided in a last thousand around 2:35. Arce moved up two positions after passing 1,800, but was still third from last with only a kilometer ahead while Lamecha Girma and Soufiane El Bakkali began their show in the lead.

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Arce gained positions in the last lap until reaching ninth (8:18.31), but he lacked meters and strength to overcome the Canadian Jean-Simon Descagnés, who made a personal best with 8.15.58 to secure the last finalist place. A pity, since the man from Burgos was in a position to have finished in the top eight.

Ahead, the show was one of those that make an era. Girma attacked hard at the penultimate pass through the finish line and achieved a notable advantage over El Bakkali, with a worse mark but a much better finisher. And what had to happen happened. The North African reduced that disadvantage until he overtook the Abyssinian before the last estuary to revalidate his world gold with 8:03.53 for Girma’s 8:05.44 and Kenyan Abraham Kibiwott’s 8:11.98.