Francisco Cubelos, David Cal and Eva Barrios, Spanish champions on 5.000 metres

Photo: David Cal beats Tono Campos (Europa Press)

In a sunny morning in Seville, with great races on all the categories, Francisco Cubelos (Club Talavera Talak) in K1 Senior, David Cal (Club de Mar Ría de Aldán - Hermanos Gandón) in C1 Senior and Eva Barrios (Club Deportivo Durius Tecozam - Viajes Sanabria) in K1 Women Senior are the new Spanish Winter Champions over the distance of 5.000 metres.

At the main category, the K1 Men Senior showed the great moment that our Olympic hopes are going through, with an outstanding performance by "Paco" Cubelos and Javier Hernanz finishing under 20 minutes. The 19-year-old Cubelos stopped the clock at 19'56", just two seconds ahead Hernanz after a memorable sprint. The two London qualifiers nominees have shown their great shape this weekend, as on Saturday were also leading the 2.000 metres trials. 

More than 20 seconds behind arrived a bunch of 5 lead by Emilio Llamedo (20'20"), who claimed bronze in a very closed sprint with Iván Alonso, fourth, and Walter Bouzán, fifth. Emilio Merchán and Manuel Busto closed that group. 12 seconds after the ten times World Marathon champion arrived Héctor Cubelos, Álvaro Fdez. Fiuza and Óscar Carrera to complete the top ten.

The C1 race was also a matter of two, with David Cal and Tono Campos showing to be one step ahead of their rivals. The gold medal went to Cal, who didn't give a chance to Campos on the final sprint. But Campos' silver has to be measured high, as it has been achieved against one of the top world paddlers, among the favourites for this summer Olympics at London, where Cal could become the best Spanish sportman ever in case of achieving a fifth olympic medal. Bronze went to Diego Romero, who arrived alone 18 seconds behind. José Luis Bouza, bronze world medalist last summer at Szeged, didn't have his best day and finished fifth after Rafael Menéndez, fourth. The follownig paddlers up to the top ten were, in this order, Ángel Cristian Rivademar, José Manuel Sánchez, David Mosquera, Alan Ávila and David Costa.

Concerning the women, eighteen paddlers were in just one minute and, what I consider more important, thirteen out of them were U23, talking about the arrrival to the elite of a new generation who will become a succesful replacement for the actual National Team. One of this youngsters, Eva Barrios (currrent U23 Marathon World Champion) took gold beating Isabel Contreras and Jana Smidakova, silver and bronze with just a five seconds difference.

At this link you can check the full final standings of the 2.000 trials and the 5.000 finals for Seniors and Juniors.