There was a heated second on the 2025 Spanish Beneath-20 Indoor Championships in Salamanca on Sunday when an athlete retaliated after a slight bump from one other athlete on the ultimate lap of the lads’s 1,500m. As a substitute of disregarding the bump and persevering with his race, 18-year-old Mario Palencia determined it was payback time, costing himself his third-place consequence.
Palencia was visibly annoyed after being handed by competitor Daniel Lopez with lower than 200 metres to go, believing the transfer had taken him out of competition for the U20 title. Because the runners reached the end, Palencia caught as much as Lopez, and slightly than specializing in his personal consequence, he delivered a large shove—sending Lopez into one other realm.
Regardless of the incident, Lopez nonetheless managed to complete forward of Palencia, securing second place. Based on MARCA, tensions flared between the 2 athletes after the shove, resulting in an alternate of phrases. Officers swiftly intervened, issuing Palencia a pink card and disqualifying him for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Palencia protested the ruling, arguing that Lopez’s transfer on the ultimate lap impeded him and will have been penalized as an alternative. Nonetheless, race officers reviewed the scenario and in the end upheld the disqualification, dismissing Palencia’s attraction.
This marks the second such incident in aggressive monitor and area inside every week. Only a few days earlier, at a highschool meet in Lynchburg, Va., an athlete took the competitors method too critically within the women’ 4x200m relay—utilizing her baton for greater than only a handoff, placing one other competitor at the back of the top.