Portuguese athlete again stands out in the European Athletics championships on a covered track, a day after winning the silver medal in the 1,500 meters.
The Portuguese Salome Afonso qualified this Saturday to the final of the 3,000 meters of the European Athletics Championships on the Netherlands, a day after having .
Salomé Afonso finished 15 laps to the Arena Omnisport Appeldoorn track in fourth place, with the time of 09.08.50 minutes, ensuring one of the six places in the decisive race, scheduled for Sunday, at 17:36 local (16:36 in Lisbon).
“Honestly, the motivation is to enjoy, because I was already mediated. I haven’t slept anything, as I was waiting, and that felt in the race. I had to give a ‘boost’ at the end, I thought it could be a quick test and it turned out to be slow and that favored me a lot,” explained the 27-year-old Benfica athlete.
The runner-up of the 1,500 meters performed on the Newland track a few hours after winning its first international medal, keeping, along the qualification position, ensuring it at the end, with the acceleration in approaching the last curve, to reach fourth place.
“Now I have an afternoon and a morning of recovery, I think it’s necessary. But there it is, the goal was the 1,500 meters, but in the 3,000, I have the advantage of not having the pressure of being the only race, so I think I can enjoy the final and the championship,” he said.
The winner of the Lusa athlete’s series was the British Melissa Courtney-Bryant, with 09.08.19, four hundreds of second less than Spanish Marta García, second classified (09.09.23), while Polish Weronika Lizakowska ended in third (09.08.40).
The Portuguese will face the final of the 3,000 with the silver medal, which will be delivered today, at 5:42 pm (16:42), six minutes before Isaac Nader hosts the bronze medal at the same distance, and can serve as motivation for the final day of Europeans under roof.
“It’s true, I think adrenaline took me in this test. It was tired, but all the emotion and motivation of yesterday [sexta-feira] It was there. I came to do both tests, knowing that the 1,500 would work and the 3,000 maybe, I think I’m very well prepared and just wait for tomorrow. I will be happy with whatever comes, “concluded the athlete, who has as personal record the 8.39.25 minutes achieved this year.
Fernanda Ribeiro, in Paris1994 and Stockholm1996, and Sara Moreira, in Gotemburg2013, have already won the European title ‘Indoor’ in this distance, whose national record belongs to Carla Sacramento, with the time of 08.36.79, achieved in Birmingham, on February 17, 2002.
