Alvaro Martin and Maria Perez win a double victory for Spain in the 35-kilometer race walks at World Athletics 2023

Alvaro Martin and Maria Perez added gold to their victory from the 20km races last weekend to seal Spain’s dominance of the race walks at the World Athletics Championships on Thursday.

In two hours, 24 minutes, and 30 seconds, Martin outlasted Ecuador’s Brian Pintado to win the men’s race, while Perez set a championship record with a timing of 2:38:40 and finished more than two minutes ahead of Kimberly Garcia Leon, the reigning champion.

Garcia Leon of Peru finished in 2:40:52, while Antigoni Drisbioti of Greece completed the podium in 2:43:22—a personal best for the season.

Martin exchanged the lead with Pintado and Japan’s Masatora Kawano into the final 4 km before making the break with less than 2 km to go after the early leader Aurelien Quinion of France slipped off the pace and was subsequently disqualified.

He established a new record and finished four seconds ahead of Pintado, with Kawano producing a season-best time of 2:25:12 to take third place. Massimo Stano of Italy, the reigning champion, came in eighth in 2:25:59.

Martin sighed, “I am so exhausted.” I finished fourth in the Olympics, and it was really difficult to come that close to winning a medal. Being a two-time world champion in Budapest is great.

“Today is a great day for Spain,” you can say. “I see Maria is first too in the women’s race.”