Two Spanish records were set within three seconds at the Valencia 10K Ibercaja on Sunday (13) as Spain’s third largest city continues to embellish its status as one of the foremost destinations to run fast times on the roads.
Trihas Gebre finished eighth in the women’s race in 31:39 to take nearly half-a-minute off the Spanish record. Gebre threatened to break the previous standard bearer of 32:06 at the San Silvestre Vallecana 10K in Madrid where she clocked 31:40, although that time could not be ratified due to the downhill, point-to-point profile of the course.
Three seconds prior to Gebre’s arrival, one of the all-time greats of Spanish distance running had yet another hurrah on the roads some 25 years after winning the European marathon title in Helsinki.
#LaFotoDeHoy para
— Iñaki Martinez (@bilbaoatletismo) January 13, 2019
✓ MartÃn Fiz, récord del ★Mundo★ 10km M55 ¡31'36¡
✓ Trihas Gebre, récord de ★España★ femenino 10km ¡31'39!
¡Enhorabuena, Crack's! #10KValencia2019 pic.twitter.com/mCv3KCkRqk
Martin Fiz, who also won the world title in Gothenburg the following year, retired from competitive distance running in 2001 but the 55-year-old is still a regular on the World Marathon Majors Series, taking part in the Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York Marathon between 2017 and 2018.
Fiz won the men’s over-50 veteran title in all six races, clocking a particularly impressive mark of 2:28:09 at the age of 54. Now 55, Fiz ran his way into the record books by smashing the world over-55 record over 10km with 31:36 to improve the previous mark by 26 seconds.
Just before Christmas, Fiz made headlines in the Spanish running fraternity after running 32:58 for 10km while wearing a suit and tie.
Fiz’s recent performances are made all the more impressive as he suffered cracked ribs after being hit by a car during a training run last year.