Samuel Barata was radiant this Sunday for having achieved a “professional goal” that he had been pursuing “for many years”: renewing the national half marathon record with the condition of being the first Portuguese to beat that mark.
“There were moments when I doubted and others when I realized that I was closer, but I always believed and this morning things became reality. I am super satisfied. It is an incredible feeling. To be honest, I haven’t even fully assimilated.” “However, because everything was fast. I just finished the race and my cell phone receives congratulatory messages. It means that the job was well done,” the long-distance runner told the Lusa agency.
Samuel Barata, 30, ran the 21,097 kilometers of the half marathon in Valencia, Spain, in 59.40 minutes and took more than a minute off the previous best national mark, held by Luís Jesus since 1997, when he achieved 1:00.56 hours. in Kosice, Slovakia.
“In fact, there was already a Portuguese athlete who was under the time, but the mark is not valid. It was António Pinto, who ran 59.43 in a half marathon in Lisbon in the 90s [em 1998]. I mean, technically I was the second athlete to do this, but, on an official level, I’m the first. I honestly didn’t expect it to be slower. I knew it was possible to go down at 01:01 and my fitness was at 01:00.30 or 01:00.40,” he estimated.
The Benfica athlete finished the Valencian half marathon in 14th position, two minutes behind Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie, who repeated last year’s success, with 57.40, and beat Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha, second placed, by one second. , and Hagos Gebrhiwet, third.
“The race has excellent athletes, training and organization and a spectacular course, where you run fast. I combined the useful with the pleasant and started with the ambition to run fast. I did a good race in the first 10 kilometers, in 28 .12 minutes. I didn’t have a break in the final part, because I was also in a second/third group, with the Europeans Carlos Mayo and Pietro Riva. There was an excellent job of mutual assistance between the three,” he said.
On October 1, at the half marathon World Championships in Riga, Samuel Barata had set the then second best Portuguese time in history, with 1:01.29 hours, while, the previous month, in Brasov, Romania, errors measurement made the World Cup impossible. Athletics will approve new national maximums on the road in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
These latest results attest to the ambition of the Covilhã-born athlete to qualify for the first time for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games marathon, a goal that will involve some more competitive moments of preparation, which will be revealed “soon.”
“At this point I am in the ranking, but I still don’t have a direct classification. I can break all the records, but if I don’t go to the Games, this doesn’t make any sense.” My professional goal is to arrive and be competitive,” he assured, taking into account his “little experience” in a distance in which he has a personal record of 2:10.13 hours, established in April, in Hamburg, Germany, and the classification mark. Olympic is 2:08.10.
Source: TSF
