Spanish athletes warm up for Valencia indoor 'worlds'

25 February 2008

MADRID – Arturo Casado won the 1,500-metre race defeating favourite Juan Carlos Higuero, who was seeking his sixth title at the Spanish Track and Field Indoor Championships in Valencia on Sunday. Casado of Madrid clocked in at 3:51.27, just edging Higuero, who came in at 3:51.62.

In the women’s 1,500, Esther Desviat, also of Madrid and a championship favourite, came in at 4:27.63 ahead of Isabel Macías who ran a time of 4:28.51.

In the women’s 800 metres, Mayte Martínez won her eighth title with a showing of 2:10.69. Suffering from a foot injury, Olympic hopeful Martínez came in ahead of Margarita Fuente-Pila, who finished in 2:13.08. "My only goal was to win, I didn’t care about my time," a jubilant Martínez said afterwards.

Jackson Quiñónez broke his own record in the 60-metre hurdle race. Finishing in 7.52, Quiñónez, born in Ecuador, now holds the world’s third best time so far this year behind Cuba’s Dayron Robles and Russian Evgeny Borisov.

Quiñónez broke his previous record of 7.56 accomplished in 2006 in San Sebastián. "All of our training has helped and I am working to win best timings like this one," he said.

Valencia will host the World Indoor Championships, from 7 to 9 March.

Spanish athletes warm up for Valencia indoor ‘worlds’