The slump in Laura Luengo’s season continues. The Extremaduran long-distance runner will not be able to compete in the Birmingham European Championships, where she was set to form part of the Spanish team in the marathon event, after withdrawing due to a health issue that she has not managed to resolve in time. The Royal Spanish Athletics Federation confirmed her absence a few days before the start of the championship, depriving Spain of one of its best distance specialists.
The news represents another blow to a season especially challenging for the Cáceres-born athlete. Last spring she already had to withdraw from the London Marathon as a consequence of bursitis caused by a fall, an injury that prevented her from completing the training volume necessary to confidently tackle the 42.195 kilometres. Now, just as she had managed to enter the selection, another physical setback keeps her out of a major international event.
STRAVA TURNED INTO A “SNITCH”
In recent weeks there had already been signs that something wasn’t going right. Her activity on Strava showed an unexpected pause in the middle of training. In fact, her last recorded workout was July 20, a 20-kilometer outing at 4:32 min/km that she accompanied with an optimistic message: “In that incredible moment of the year when doing 20 km feels like a recovery day 😂”. From then until this August 5 (16 km at 4:27 min/km) she had not posted any session again, feeding doubts about her physical condition.
The withdrawal of Luengo also means the loss of a runner who had signed one of the best results of her career with an 11th-place finish at the Tokyo World Championships and who, despite a year heavily conditioned by physical problems, remained one of the main references in Spanish long-distance running.
Now all eyes turn to the final stretch of the season. If she manages to recover in the coming weeks, it remains to be seen whether Laura Luengo will be able to prepare for some of the autumn’s major marathons, with the Valencia Marathon as the main unknown, or if she will opt for another year-end objective to close a season that, up to now, has shown little mercy.
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Dylan Holloway
I’ve always been fascinated by the stories hidden behind a stopwatch, a finish line or a record-breaking performance. At Athletics News, I cover athletes, competitions and the moments shaping track and field, with a particular interest in the people and journeys behind the results.