Pedro Pichardo, the three-time Olympic champion, and Auriol Dongmo, the world champion inside of weight, are, once again, the natural highlight of the Portuguese delegation for the World Championships in Athletics, which begin on Friday.
The Portuguese preparation for these championships, which will be held in Eugene, Oregon, from the 15th to the 24th of this month, has been thorough and a large part of the team was training in California, already preparing for the always complicated time difference.
In this case, it will be eight hours that the 23 Portuguese athletes will have to ‘cancel’ to look good at the ‘party’ that the United States will have, in its charismatic place of selections, the track of the University of Oregon, in the debut as host country.
The number of Portuguese women exceeds those who were in Doha three years ago, but is far from the 30 who competed in Athens97, on a par with athletes such as Fernanda Ribeiro, Manuela Machado or Carla Sacramento.
Now, the panorama is completely different, despite talking about possible medals, as in those ‘golden years’ of Portuguese athletics.
The midfield has practically disappeared and for the first time the entourage does not include a single marathon runner.
The one that continues to be the specialty with the greatest presence of Portuguese, 52, even had minimal achievements, by Solange Jesus, but the athlete decided to opt for the European championshipswhich also take place this year, in an international calendar that is still under construction due to the stoppage forced by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Now, walking is the most represented sector, without waiting for the brilliance of João Vieira to be repeated in Doha 2019, runner-up in the 50 km walk, nor for Inês Henriques to recover the brilliance that made her the last Portuguese champion -it was she the gold of the walk of 50 km in London 2017.
João Vieira, the only medalist in Doha 2019, will become the Portuguese athlete with the most appearances in the competition (12) in the 35 km debut at the World Championships, which will go with Rui Coelho, while Inês Henriques will be accompanied by Sandra Silva and Vitória Oliveira at this distance. The national record holder Ana Cabecinha and Carolina Costa are, along with Inês, the other participants in the 20-kilometer walk.
For what they did at the Tokyo Olympics and this year at the World Cup inside from Belgrade, Pedro Pichado and Auriol Dongmo they are, in fact, the great highlights among the Portuguese.
Pichardo is Olympic champion and Diamond League winner last year, occupying the leadership of the classification triple, among other achievements.
Ahead will be the current champion, the American Christian Taylor, still very weak after a fracture last year, and he knows that he does not have the opposition of the Spaniard of Cuban origin Jordan Díaz, who would be his main opponent, but he is in a ‘year of transition’ between selections.
As for Dongmo, the world indoor champion, he has the second longest release of the year and if you are at your best, aim for the podium. He can count on strong opposition from the Americans and Chinese, who have barely competed since Tokyo.
In the top-10, Portugal also has Patrícia Mamona (third in the triple, visibly worse than in the Olympic Games, where she won silver) and Liliana Cá (fifth in the list of winners).
The candidates for the finals are Tiago Pereira (12th in triple), Leandro Ramos (13th in javelin) and, if they continue to progress, Jessica Inchude (22nd in weight) and Evelyse Veiga (24th in length).
Cátia Azevedo, 26th in the 400 meters, aims to be in one of the three semifinals.
Less is expected, in terms of top results, from the rest of the delegation, made up of Isaac Nader (1,500 meters), Marta Pen (1,500 meters), Mariana Machado (5,000 meters), Irina Rodrigues (discus throw), Lorene Bazolo ( 100 and 200 meters) and the ‘returners’ Vera Barbosa (400 meters hurdles) and Tsanko Arnaudov (shot put).
For them, the goal clearly passes through personal records and beat previous rankings.
Source: Observadora
