Mariano García is a unique athlete. Always flat, direct and with witty and funny comments, the man from Fuente Álamo (24 years old) has arrived at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade in an exceptional state of form. World leader of the year with 1:45.12, a race in New York in which he smashed the indoor Spanish record, a record that had been in force for 20 years since Antonio Manuel Reina stopped the clock at 1:45.25 at the 2002 European Championships in Vienna.
“The sensations have been very good. Now it’s time to recover well and give everything in the final”, explained Mariano in the mixed zone after dominating his series with an almost insulting sensation. He won without palliative, with 1: 48.32, widely dominating the race and his rivals to enter the final. “I have many more gears, I haven’t put them all in. I’ve only expended a fuse,” he said with his usual wit. And he warned: “I am for what the rivals want. If they want to run, let them run. And if they want to go slow, I am also for the last meters. In middle-distance races you should not go with a predetermined tactic, but you have to solve the problems that arise “.
‘La moto’ has been running alone since he was 8 years old, he lives at his parents’ house in Cuevas de Reyllo and the days he decides not to take the bike to travel the seven kilometers that separate him from Fuente Álamo to train he puts his town’s abandoned soccer field to good use or works out on the trails. He leaves the track and the spikes for the more specific preparation close to the competitions and there, under the guidance of his coach Gabi Lorente, the same from Mo Katir, he takes advantage of his trips to Cartagena, where he studies Physical Activity and Sports Sciences, to use the track of the UCAM. “I want to win at least five people… (laughs). That would be nice. Hope all goes well. Whenever I go to a race I see myself capable of winning, I don’t care about the rival. If not, he would stay at my house,” he says when asked about his goal for the final (today, 7:10 p.m.).
In that final there will not be the great favorite, the British Elliot Giles, injured in the back, but another Spaniard, Álvaro de Arriba, who won his place after fighting almost literally against German Marc Reuther. “I am happy to get out of the boxing match”, said the 27-year-old from Salamanca a few minutes after having to make a prodigious final sprint to finish second, behind the American Harris, and be one of the eight finalists (1:47.97). “The German was blocking, holding… I don’t understand. I knew I had the strength to open up and go through. I wanted one of the two places that would take me to the final and I got it.”
From Above does not hide that he is excited for the final match: “I am in very good shape and I think I will recover in good condition. I have already got rid of the nerves that I have managed to manage well, now in the final I will enjoy although I would have preferred to be six athletes instead of eight. The worst is those who share the street at the exit. I think there will be a lot of touch, a lot of overtaking and we will have to be very attentive.” The only gold in the history of Spain in an indoor World Cup was achieved by Manolo Martínez in weight in Birmingham 2003. Belgrade, 19 years later, can bring the next gold metal.