Local stars De Arriba and Mechaal get the cheers in Huelva

Local stars De Arriba and Mechaal get the cheers in Huelva
Fecha de publicación: 
21 June 2019
0
Imagen principal: 

The 14the edition of the Meeting Iberoamericano in the southern Spanish city of Huelva, a European Atheltics Classic Permit Meeting, saw two outstanding world lead8ng performances in the field events from Venezuelan triple jumper Yulimar Rojas and Cuban discus thrower Denia Caballero but also good wins by local middle distance stars Alvaro de Arriba and Adel Mechaal.

Rojas, who is based in Spain and competes for the FC Barcelona club, leapt out to a personal best of 15.06m in the second round, the 2017world champion producing a personal best and the first jump by a woman over 15 metres in the world since 2016.

Spain’s reigning European indoor champion Ana Peleteiro had her first outdoor competition of the year and had a solid result of 14.33m to finish third to start her summer campaign.

Caballero uncorked a massive 69.20m in the second round to win by almost two metres from her compatriot Yaime Perez.

Arguably the biggest cheers of the night were reserved for another of Spain’s European indoor champions from Glasgow as de Arriba took the plaudits in the 800m to win in 1:46.28, coming home ahead of Poland's Mateusz Borkowski who was second 1:46.52.

The gun went for the 1500m barely 20 minutes after de Arriba had crossed the line and saw Adel Mechaal won the 1500m for the third time in Huelva, this time clocking 3:38.69 finishing ahead of Spanish 800m record holder Kevin Lopez, who was second in in 3:39.09.

The field events also generated European successes with Germany's 2015 European U23 bronze medallist Sara Gambetta winning the shot put with 18.40m, just six centimetres short of her personal best, while Greece's Mihail Anastasakis, a finalist at the last two European Athletics Championships and fourth in 2016, won the hammer with 74.44m.

In addition to Caballero, there were also notable wins for her Cuban compatriots Roxana Gomez in the 400m in 52.37 and for Zurian Hechavarria who won the 400m hurdles in 55.40 with Russia’s Vera Rudakova second in 55.82.

In third place was the emerging Spanish 17-year-old talent Salma Celeste Paralluelo, who ran 57.43 for not only a Spanish U18 best but also an U18 world-leading time.

She ran the 400m at the Glasgow 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships but in only her third 400m hurdles race Paralluelo has propelled herself into medal consideration for the Boras 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships in a month’s time.

Add new comment

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.