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| Manuel Martinez will lead the Spanish team at the Paris 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships. |
Spain will send a team of 34 athletes to the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris from 4-6 March, lead by their 36-year-old team captain Manuel Martinez, who will be making his ninth appearance at the championships.
Martinez, the oldest member of the Spanish team travelling to the French capital next week, won the shot put at the 2002 European Athletics Indoor Championships and has been on the podium at the Championships on two other occasions.
Reflecting the diversity of the Spanish team, at the other end of the age spectrum is 19-year-old Vicente Docavo, who produced a national junior triple jump record of 16.61m at the Spanish indoor championships in Valencia last weekend.
Whereas Martinez is possibly coming to the end of his career after a myriad of appearances at major events, including a victory at the 2003 World Indoor Championships, Docavo will be making his debut at a senior championship and the experience will undoubtedly benefit him as he could be among the medal contenders at this summer’s European Athletics Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, in July.
In addition to Martinez, the Spanish team around contains nine other athletes who have been among the medals at previous European Athletics Indoor Championships: Luis Alberto Marco, Manuel Olmedo, Diego Ruiz, Juan Carlos Higuero, Jesus Espaí±a, Felipe Vivancos, Jackson Quií±ónez, Ruth Beitia and Concha Montaner.
Two years ago, in Torino, Spain took a respectable four silver medals and one bronze but will be hoping for some of their athletes to get back on top of the podium again.
The best bets look to be in the men’s middle distance events with Marco, the 800m silver medallist in 2009, teaming up with the rapidly improving 2009 European Athletics Junior Championships gold medallist Kevin Lopez, who is the fastest European over four laps of the track this winter with 1:46.06.
In the men’s 1500m, Olmedo, Ruiz and the 2007 European indoor champion Higuero could potentially emulate the Spanish trio of four years ago and take a clean sweep of the medals.
The 2010 European Athletics Championships 5000m silver medallist Espaí±a has won three bronze medals in the 3000m at previous championships and is in the type of form that could see him get on the podium again, although he will come up against the man who beat him in Barcelona, Great Britain’s Mo Farah.
Likewise, the ever-consistent high jumper Ruth Beitia, another of the silver medallists in Torino, should be in contention for a medal at her fourth successive championships, after also getting the silver in 2005 and then a bronze in 2007.
The complete Spain team can be seen at the Spanish federation website here.