Regional Championship CARTAGENA
Alejandro Ortuño competed last Saturday in CARTAGENA, in the absolute regional championship (which includes the youth, junior, promises and senior categories), this time in the 1,500 m.l.
Ortuño started in Serie A, where the best regional specialists participated.
The test was contested by 16 athletes, of which all except Alejandro were from higher categories. Among the members, we found Mariano García García, current Spanish Winter Champion in 1500, absolute athletes such as Iván Hernandez Illán or Redouane Zirar in the promising category.
After the starting gun, Alejandro was at the head of the race, staying with the five best middle distance runners, in a race that ran very slowly for the aspirations of our athlete, whose goal was to get below 4:00”.
In the first lap, they were already five seconds slower than Ortuño's aspirations, who constantly asked for a changeover. In the last 400, Alejandro kept the leading group tense and imposed a good change of pace to finish third in the championship, in addition to lowering his time by more than a second, with a time of 4'02”34 which places him among the 7 best national brands.
Alejandro's intervention is magnified, in a high-level group, where some of his rivals were up to 8 years older than him.
Alejandro Ortuño, commented at the end of the test:
“Our objective was to lose 4 min but with the wind that we suffered, the race was slow from the start and we had to use tactics.
In the first lap we were already 5 seconds above the set pace, but even so I was able to respond and break the group with 500 meters to go. In the last lap we were five athletes, where I was able to make a big change overtaking 3 rivals, staying second and due to a mistake at the finish line I was third. The most important thing, the record of 4:02 with great sensations and very happy to be able to respond like this in the last meters”.
For his part, Fran Carpena, coach of Ortuño:
“…we had worked this week on the competition pace for 3:57 and everything went perfectly. In the competition we have not had the expected luck, because the first 800 was very slow and nobody relieved Alejandro. Already at the passage of a thousand (2:45), the expected mark had vanished. The last 500, there was a lot of running but it was too late and we ended up with mmp of 4:02.
The most positive thing was that Alejandro was able to observe the race, stretch it and, most importantly for a middle-distance runner, have strong rhythm changes within the competition. He also finished with a lot of energy, something that is very important to us and we work on it in our daily training sessions. In general, the image offered was very good, we are very happy. It only remains to continue working.”
