Reigning world indoor champions Mariano García and Darlan Romani, Olympic bronze medalist Ana Peleteiro and European indoor champion Adrián Ben will contest in Madrid on 22 July, at the World Athletics Continental Tour Silver 2023 meeting.
Spain’s Mariano García and Adrián Ben will headline a brilliant battle of European champions in the men’s 800m. 25-year-old García won the continental outdoor title in Munich in 2022, capping off a year in which he had also claimed the victory at the World Indoor Championship. Six months later, his fellow countryman Ben picked up the baton to win the gold medal at the European Indoor Championship in Istanbul.
In Madrid, they will face a huge line-up which includes 1:43-Mexican Jesús Tonatiu López, Olympic 4x400m silver medalist Tony van Diepen of the Netherlands, Australia’s Joseph Deng and 2018 world indoor bronze medalist Saúl Ordóñez of Spain.
World indoor champion Darlan Romani of Brazil will be the man to beat in the shot put, while Italia’s Sara Fantini seeks to repeat the success she found at Vallehermoso Stadium in 2022, when she took the hammer throw win in a national record of 75.77m.
The reigning Olympic triple jump bronze medalist Ana Peleteiro will be one of the home-favorite athletes of the meeting. The 27-year-old has just come back from maternity and has already leaped 14.13m in her first competition after giving birth last December.
In Madrid, the Spanish star will face her fellow-countrywoman María Vicente, the national heptathlon record holder, and Jamaica’s Kimberly Williams, a three-time world indoor medalist.
The men’s 400m will be one of the most expected races of the meeting with a clash between 2021 European indoor champion Óscar Husillos of Spain and 2022 European silver medalist Ricky Petrucciani of Switzerland. Other big names in the event will be 44.90-Jamaican Zandrion Barnes, Japan’s Yuki Joseph Nakajima, Italian record-holder Davide Re and Belgian 4x400m relay legend Dylan Borlée.
Confirmed athletes by the organizers also include some Spanish champions like Jaël-Sakura Bestué and Paula Sevilla in the women’s 100m, Marta Pérez and Marta García in the women’s 1500m, European finalists Águeda Marqués –in the same event– and Quique Llopis in the 110m hurdles.
