Tokyo breathes for the first time from spring, at last one day below 30 degrees, and sport fans are distributed between the National Stadium, the magnificent stage of the Athletics World Championship, with the firm of Kengo Kuma and wood of the 47 prefectures of Japan, and the mythical Ryogoku Kokugikan, the Wembley of the Supreme This week about 11,000 people delight with the fighting that begin in the morning and reach their peak in the afternoon, when they appear, colossal, serious, almost a monument in themselves, the Yokozunas Onosato and Hoshoryu. They do a whole liturgy, such as tramples against the sand to scare away evil spirits, or throw a handful of salt on the circle, the ‘dohyo’, to protect themselves from the injuries as soon as they are embedded as buffalo. (He has since 2021 with 6,304 points), he would also like to keep the injuries at bay, but he doesn’t know how and he suffers all summer after reappearing after Achilles tendon breakage last year.
The Catalan, who lives in San Sebastián to stay close to her teacher, who makes her run, jump and throw, and suffer silently for her physical problems that delay the flowering of a world -talled athlete athlete gagged by injuries. The coach twists the gesture when he sees that María Vicente, who had reached the seventh fence of the 100 meters in the lead, deflates and ends in 13.65s, far from her brand. Then, like a ‘rikishi’, as a Sumo fighter, a new ritual begins: he goes to the mat and counts 10 steps to the side and another 35 back, where his powerful race will begin towards the ribbon. But first he removes his nails and puts his feet in flip flops to give a breath to the bunion that carries it bitter the whole season. The height is one of the tests where it suffers the most. There he puts a shoe before rising and his foot resents every time. The solution is the hands of Miguel Ángel Cos, his guardian angel. The physiotherapist bandages contain the art of a ‘Origami’ and allow it, first, to reach this World Cup, and then compete and enjoy it.
The Catalan of L’Hospitalet does not fall a smile either with 1.77m of the height, the 13.34 of the weight, nor the 23.96 in 200m (his best mark of the year), which allow him to finish the first day of the heptatlon with 3,704 points, 39 ahead of his record in Spain. “It has been a decaffeinated day. Nothing is very good and nothing is very bad. I am happy to be here and I continue with the objective of the record of Spain, but also to be again in such a championship – his last heptatlon in one of the great appointments was in the Tokyo games, precisely in 2021 – and feel competitive.”
Before leaving the track, María Vicente stays in a corner watching the last series of the 200m, where Anna Hall, the American who this year has managed to overcome the 7,000 points, confirms her overwhelming domain in a heptatlon that leads with 4,154 points (248 advantage over the Irish Kate O’Connor) and where she intends to pass over Nafi Thiam and Katherina Johnson-Thompson, both with two world titles. Hall is a rival whom the Spanish is able to tute someday. “I’m going to have to put the batteries if I want to stand up in (the Olympic Games) Los Angeles.”
