The Portugal Indoor U23 Championships are taking place yesterday and today in Braga (POR).
The two walking events on the classic distance of the 3,000m women and the 5,000m men took place yesterday.
3.000m indoor U23 women
Nine athletes at the start and all completed the race.
The fight for victory was particularly interesting for the first three athletes who finished the race with only 6:55/100 between gold and bronze.
Victory to Carolina Costa (POR) in 13:35.63 which on this same palaindoor last Feb. 22, 2020 had established the personal best (13:05.85)
Second place to Joana Pontes (POR) in 13:37.50 which instead she gets the new personal best (previous of 13:52.91 established in Pombal, POR on 29.2.2020).
Third place to Maria Bernardo (POR) in 13:42.18 she too obtains the new personal best (previous of 13:59.94 established in Pombal, POR on 2.3.2019).
5.000m indoor U23 men
Six athletes at the start and all have completed the race.
In this race the victory of the favorite Paulo Martins (born 15.1.1999) has never been questioned.
Started in the lead of the race Paulo Martins (POR) did not abandon the leaderships for a single moment ending his effort in 21:12.64.
This was a consolation after the DQ of last week when in Pombal (POR) on the occasion of the Absolute Championships of Portugal, in an attempt to win a medal, he had been disqualified. This year Paulo Martins had already obtained in an indoor competition (always in Pombal on 1.2.2020) a quite significant time for him (21:02.78) who has a personal best of 20:57.47 also obtained in Pombal on 9.2.2019.
Second place to Ruben Santos (POR) in 22:29.64
Third place to Vitor Cabral (POR) in 22:31.86 which establishes the new personal best by taking off only 23/100 of a second to the previous one (22:32.09) established in Pombal on 27.1.2018