The Grand Prix of the Kings returned this Saturday to Faro. The 42nd edition of the already historic national athletics competition brought together more than 700 athletes in all competitions, but the best Portuguese teams ended up not being present again, leaving the main highlights in charge of foreign runners: the Finnish Jussi Utriainen completely dominated in the men's race, while Russian Marina Kovaleva did the same in the women's race.
In the men's seniors, Jussi Utriainen set a time of 18m46 and was very consistent throughout the 6.300 meters of the race, never leaving the lead, with the second place going to the Latvian Valeris Zolnerovic, with another eight seconds.
Closing the podium was a Portuguese (and Algarvian): Jorge Varela, from Clube Areias de São João, who achieved a time of 19m27.
In the women's competition, highlight for the absence of the Algarve Ana Dias, winner of the last five editions of the competition. Thus, Russian Marina Kovaleva stood out from the start, imposing a very strong pace and winning without contestation with a mark of 21m15.
In second place was the Finnish Johanna Letinen, who managed 21m28. The last place on the podium would also go to an Algarvian – Ana Cabecinha – but not before there was some confusion in the middle: in the final stretch, an athlete sprinted to the finish line crossing it before the Algarvian athlete, but still with one lap less, what was not clear at the start to the judges, but it was for the athlete from Algarve, who immediately claimed third place for herself.
Ao Sul Informação, the Algarvian marcher explained a situation… strange: “It was a very confusing finish, the girl started sprinting and I didn't know what to think, because she had one lap less, but third place is [was] really mine… ”, explained the athlete, pleased to get the podium in a sport she is not used to.
“This is not my specialty, but I really like running, I really like this race, and it also serves as preparation for the march and for this season, whose goal, in an Olympic year, I couldn't miss”, said Ana Cabecinha, from Clube Oriental de Pechão.
The Algarve athlete Jorge Varela also managed to be the best Portuguese and a place on the podium and guaranteed that "this is a difficult race, where you compete with athletes who are better prepared and at another stage of the season, but it ended up going well", he said . “It went well, I wasn't expecting to get a place in the top three”, said the Areias de São João athlete.
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