[NSR] Guatemala at the XXX Summer Olympic Games, London 2012 - the quest for the first ever medal

Selected headlines, media
EFE: Erick Barrondo da a Guatemala la primera medalla olímpica de su historia
AFP: Erick Barrondo, el príncipe de Inglaterra
NY Times: At Last, a Medal for Guatemala
Prensa Libre: Erick Barrondo cumple con actuación histórica en la marcha olímpica
Siglo 21: Erick Barrondo saca pecho y obtiene plata olímpica






Full race video: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/track-and-field/mens-20km-race-walk.html

 

Just created the Eng. Wikipedia article for Mirna Ortiz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirna_Ortiz


I think another historic Saturday awaits us.

 

Hate to agree but yes, those guys are weirdos.

As a side note, most participants were abusing of floating. It seems the ideal tactical race is to do it until your second warning.

 

Saturday Erick Barrondo & Daniel Quiyuch take on the 50 km walk at 4:00 EDT,

Mirna Ortiz, Jamy Franco, and Mayra Herrera will compete in the 20km walk at 12:00 EDT.

Both events will be shown live on NBC sports network Channel & http://www.nbcolympics.com/online-listings/day=august-11/index.html

Surely there will be other streams available.

I plan to watch on HD and sync with Emisoras Unidas. I think I finally figured out how to do this with VLC media player.

 

Aficionados chapines aguantan el sueño y se reúnen para observar el evento (Alta Verapaz)

 

Race standings after 25 km: 1) AUS 2) RUS 3) Barrondo 4) Quiyuch

They are keeping up but they both have 2 warnings. We'll see...

Edit: Quiyuch out on 3rd warning at the 2 hour mark. Damn.

Edit: Barrondo pushing it to the limit around 30km as Sergey Bakulin (RUS) accelerated the pace and the Guatemalan stayed with him. What a freaking warrior. Slow-mo replay shows both competitors floating, taking off the floor by at least an inch. Risky.

 

Don Bernardo Barrondo watches...

 

Si Tianfeng (CHN) attacks and dashes on to take solitaire 1st place. Barrondo in 6th place at the moment, 10 seconds behind Si.

 

I agree. These judges can go to hell.

Barrondo out on 3rd warning at 42km. Let's see what the ladies do later today.

Edit: Sergey Kirdyapkin (RUS) who is a 3-time 50km world champion including this year at Saransk, wins the gold medal, setting a new OR at 3:35:59. Australia 2nd, China 3rd.

 

Mirna Ortiz disqualified at the 8km mark. I think she had great ambitions, and got a little too anxious once two people took off.

Jamy Franco almost two minutes behind with 9 km covered.

-___-

 

Jamy Franco was the best placed Guatemalan (31st) at 1:33:18 which is 40 seconds over her Pan American record time last year.

A memorable finish where Elena Lashmanova (RUS) catches her compatriot, Kaniskina, who had led most of the race, on the last lap, and beats her by 7 seconds, setting a new World Record of 1:25:02. The top 5 places were the 5 fastest ever Olympic times. Qieyang Shenjie (CHN) set new Asian record. There were 15 walkers under 1:30:00. These few facts evidence how competitive this race was.