Gladys Tejeda and her plan for 2022: “Records are there to improve them”

2022 began with the firm step of Gladys Tejeda. The Peruvian athlete competed in the Seville Marathon on Sunday and achieved the South American record for the event, a mark that had been held by Inés Melchor since 2014. With a time of 2:25:57, she improved on Inés’ 2:26:48 from 8 years ago.

Seville suits the Peruvian athlete, since in the same marathon she achieved the mark to qualify for Tokyo 2020. Gladys accepts that it is a test that she likes because she already knows the route and the weather -12 degrees- is good for a marathon . “We always opt to run a marathon at the beginning of the year. For 2020 I had some weaknesses and in this type of event you can see how it improves “tells us the Peruvian from the Spanish city.

Now, Gladys commands the list of South American marathoners. “The records are in mind, but the objective is to fight against our own time. In 2020 I did 2:27:07 and I was not satisfied. Now we managed to reduce that time and that’s where we collided with the South American record and that’s very nice. Records are there to improve them and it’s a good incentive”they tell us.

Gladys now owns the South American marathon record, in addition to the half marathon record she already had since 2016. But she doesn’t want to stop at that, she points to other records. “Long distances have always been my strong point, but I also plan to run on the track. In my objectives is to improve my time in the 10 thousand meters ”, she tells us.

The South American record for the 10 thousand meters on the track belongs to the Brazilian Carmen Souza Oliveira since 1993 with a time of 31:47.76 minutes. Inés Melchor came close to beating him in 2015 with a time of 31:56.62, while the best time of Gladys Tejeda in this distance it is 32:18.49, in that same year.

Peruvians with older South American records

Beyond the records, this 2022 will be a World Cup year for Gladys Tejeda. With the time reached in Seville, he achieved a quota for the marathon of the Oregon Athletics World Championship, next July. Despite this achievement, Gladys must plan her presence at the event, since her next plan included lowering the distances and competing in middle-distance events such as the 10,000 and 5,000 meters.

Meanwhile, in November he will compete in the World Half Marathon, a test he qualified for in October last year in Valencia. This contest will be held in China and Gladys will go not only to look for a good result, but also to improve her personal record.

“You have to talk with the coach to plan that. The World Half Marathon interests me a lot. I have time for that. The Athletics World Championship is in June and we have to plan with the Federation, but first, see how I am recovering from this event”he tells us.

Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that a month before the World Championships in Athletics, in June, Gladys Tejeda could participate in the Bolivarian Games in Colombia, where he would compete in the 10 thousand meters. The crossing of both competitions would make him have to decide between one of them.

However, if the marks of the World Athletics Championships will be considered for the classification to the Pan American Games Santiago 2023 and Paris 2024, the presence of Gladys will be in Oregon. “What criteria hasn’t been mentioned yet, but I know for the Olympics it’s going to be time and ranking. That’s what the World Cup is going to be good for and surely the objective will be to go”, Gladys tells us.

This 2022 started for Gladys with a training base in Kenya. From the first days of the year she trained there and from there she traveled to Seville for the marathon. “It is always good to go out, to camp. I have had the opportunity to go to Colombia, Mexico and now we have been to Kenya. It is good to move, to know things, to learn. The training sessions change according to the place and what happened in Kenya is bearing fruit”, says the athlete.