Portugal takes an extensive delegation without heavyweights to the World Cups in Glasgow | Athletics

The Dutch Femke Bol (400 meters, 49.24s), the North American Grant Holloway (60m hurdles, 7.27s) and the British Josh Kerr (3000m) will be three of the headliners of the 19th World Championships indoor track and field athletics, which kicks off this Friday in Glasgow, at the Commonwealth Arena. They all set world records this season (in Kerr’s case, it was in the two miles, with 8m00.67s) and are, therefore, very strong candidates for medals, a status that does not apply to any of the 17 representatives that Portugal will have in the event. .

It’s a delegation, the Portuguese one, with five more athletes than in 2022, but without any of the three brightest stars of recent years: Pedro Pichardo (triple jump), Patrícia Mamona (triple jump) and Auriol Dongmo (shot put) . And if two years ago, in Belgrade, Portugal won two medals, one gold (Dongmo) and one silver (Pichardo), this time the prospects are more modest, especially because a good part of the national contingent (10) is part of the teams of 4×400m relays.

“Each and every team always wants to be accompanied by its best talents. We have many good ones, but it is a fact that we lack three medalists in major competitions. We have to see this absence as the possibility of recovering and preparing in the best possible way for the big summer events”, said Luís Pereira, leader of the Portuguese delegation, in statements to the Lusa agency.

In this context, the greatest hopes of a possible Portuguese podium in Scotland are concentrated on Isaac Nader (national record holder in the 1500m, with 3m34.23s), Tiago Pereira (ranked ninth in the final in Belgrade, two years ago) and Jessica Incude ( is making a good start to the season in the shot put).

“If all the athletes overcome themselves and, even so, they don’t get a podium, we have to face it as everyone did better than they have ever done, but we may have to deal with the same overcoming of their opponents and being better than ours” , warned Luís Pereira, aware of the difficulties that Portugal will encounter.

Because, on the one hand, it will feature athletes with great experience, such as Lorène Bazolo (60m) and Cátia Azevedo (400m and 4x400m), on the other hand it will have to manage the absolute debuts in these journeys by Ericsson Tavares, Omar Elkhatib, Duarte Fernandes, Vera Barbosa, Carina Pereira and Fatoumata Diallo, all in the relays.

In total, there will be 132 countries competing in Glasgow, until Sunday, but only 10 have a larger delegation than the Portuguese. One of them, Great Britain (for this purpose, England, Scotland and Wales compete together), will have what will certainly be one of the home fans’ favorite athletes, Josh Kerr. This Edinburgh native, who last year became world champion in the 1500m, this time will not have competition in the 3000m from the great middle-distance reference, the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen, recovering from an Achilles tendon injury.