European 800m leader Tony van Diepen will face world indoor champion Mariano García and Spain’s Olympic quartet formed by Adrián Ben, Saúl Ordóñez, Pablo Sánchez-Valladares and Jesús Gómez on Saturday 18 June at the Meeting of Madrid — a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meet — at Vallehermoso Stadium.
Van Diepen, 26, has remained unbeaten so far this season with a perfect scoresheet of four wins. The Dutchman set a European lead (and personal best) of 1:44.31 to clinch the triumph at the Irena Szewinska Memorial — a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet — in Bydgoszcz on 3 June. In 2021, he already won the 800m at the Meeting of Madrid in front of Ben, Ordóñez and Sánchez-Valladares, amongst others.
Van Diepen has also excelled in the long sprints, winning the Olympic silver medal with the Netherlands 4x400m team in Tokyo, where they set the second fastest time ever by a European country — a national record of 2:57.18. The Dutchman has won individual 400m silver and bronze medals at the European Indoor Championship in the last two editions, and relay gold and bronze medals at Euros and Worlds indoor, respectively.
Mariano García, 24, shone in the last indoor campaign. The two-time Spanish outdoor 800m champion kicked off the season setting a new national record of 1:45.12 and capped it off by winning the gold medal at World Indoor Championship in a dominant run. García will try to keep the momentum in the summer campaign as he focuses on the World and European Championships.
Olympic 800m finalist Adrián Ben of Spain will face Van Diepen and García. Ben, 23, has proved himself as a pure championship runner, placing sixth at Worlds in Doha in 2019, then fifth at the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 — both two the best position ever reached by a Spanish athlete in the two-lap event. In his last race before flying to Japan, Ben set a personal best of 1:44.18, which ranked him fourth in the Spanish all-time list.
Spanish 800m record-holder Saúl Ordóñez will also be included in the line-up at Meeting of Madrid. Olympian in Tokyo, Ordóñez stormed the global stage four years ago, when he won the bronze medal at World Indoor Championships and broke the six-year-old national outdoor record with 1:43.65 — the fastest European time of the year.
Olympians Pablo Sánchez-Valladares and Jesús Gómez complete a top quality field for the Meeting of Madrid. While Sánchez-Valladares, 24, has focused on the 800m over his career, making the national teams for the Tokyo Olympics and Glasgow and Torun European Indoor Championships, Gómez has mastered the 1500m. At 31, Gómez has won two bronze medals at the Euroindoors, and has successfully defended his Spanish outdoor title since 2019. He still got the speed on her legs, proved with the national 1000m record he set in 2021 with 2:15.99.
Don’t miss out on your chance to see the European 800m leader facing the world indoor champion and four Spanish Olympians at Vallehermoso Stadium at the World Athletics Continental Tour Silver Meeting of Madrid. Secure your seats at https://www.enterticket.es/eventos/world-athletics-continental-tour-silver-madrid-2022-563018
