Athletics has seen one of the barriers that seemed impossible to overcome fall. For the first time, an athlete has run a marathon in under two hours under normal race conditions. Sabastian Sawe did it, leaving speechless everyone who was waiting at the finish line of the London Marathon, in Saint James's Park, just in front of Buckingham Palace. A titanic feat. Never before had a man run a marathon in under two hours officially, as Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge had done so in 2019 in Vienna but as part of an experiment programmed by the INEOS brand on a closed circuit. Kipchoge had had coaches, support staff, pacemakers, and all sorts of facilities to prove that running under two hours was feasible. He was right. And today, a compatriot of his has proven it.

Nine-thirty in the morning. A group of people are gathered a few meters from Can Ruti, in Badalona, at the start of a small path that leads into a wooded area. A different Badalona, rural, with orchards and places where wine is still made, as in the Vall de Betlem. The nearly forty people gathered here will begin a walk towards the beautiful monastery of Sant Jeroni de la Murtra. And to start, they pass by two flags with the names of two of the country's best athletes: Ricky Rubio and Kilian Jornet.

On June 6, 'Els segadors' will sound in the heart of Paris. To understand how we got here, we need to pull a thread that takes us back to the years of the Civil War in l'Espluga de Francolí. Josep Guasch, a militant of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya who had held a position in the mayor's office, fled to France, where he ended up in the Argelers prisoner camp, enduring hardships on the sand of this beach where so many Republicans were interned. A few years later, his wife and children reunited with him there and put down roots in Perpignan. Josep dedicated himself to being a farmer, as he had done in Conca de Barberà. And one of his sons, also named Josep, would stand out as a rugby player for both USAP of Perpignan and for XIII Catalan, a team that played a thirteen-a-side rugby game, a version of this sport in which it is not played with fifteen players. They say that when XIII Catalan negotiated his signing, Josep told them he had a job in a butcher shop and was not sure if he could train. The club, therefore, bought the butcher shop and gave it to him. As the owner, he could then train and play as he pleased.

Barcelonismo is excited about the possibility of winning the League title against Real Madrid. The fans look at each other, with glances of complicity, imagining that in a few days Hansi Flick's team can lift the title for the second consecutive year, achieving the definitive result against an Arbeloa's Real Madrid that walks through the championship like a lost soul. In fact, they might win it sooner. In that case, the whites would have to give them a guard of honor. That would be funny too.

Four European Cups, four World Cups, 7 Leagues, 5 Cups... The list of trophies won by Anna Casarramona i Vivas (Manlleu, 1994) seems endless. For 18 seasons, she has become one of the best Catalan athletes, leading the wave that changed women's roller hockey, and taking it to the brink of professionalization. Now she is retiring and will play her last matches with HC Palau, which has become a model club, with hundreds of boys and girls on wheels and a first-class locker room for the women's first team where Anna receives ARA.

Sant Andreu is celebrating. One of the historic Catalan football clubs has been able to celebrate promotion to Primera RFEF, after the triumph of the four-bar team (2-1) against Reus Reddis in a Narcís Sala packed to the rafters. More than a decade later, the club returns to the third tier of state football after a strange week as the team's coach, Natxo González, suffered a heart attack that led to him being hospitalized. Today, logically, he could not be on the bench for the match against the Reus team, a club where he also worked. The Reus fans present at Narcís Sala showed banners of support for González, who could not witness the triumph on the field with goals from Mendes and Señé, from a penalty. Goals that led to a great celebration on the stadium's pitch.

Frenchman Arthur Fils ended up without a shirt, jumping into the pool of the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona-1899. Tradition dictates that the champion of the ATP 500 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, the long-standing Godó tournament, must take a dip in the pool, a scene that Rafa Nadal used to enact every year until not too long ago. On this occasion, it was Fils who did it for the first time, defeating Andrey Rublev, who at times seemed like he would manage to extend the final to a third set. But when he had it within reach, Fils showed his competitive spirit and clinched his first title in Barcelona in quick fashion, in two sets: 6-2 and 7-6.

In the summer of 2025, millions of Taiwanese watched on television as the Chinese army blockaded the island and how this caused panic. Hundreds of people looted supermarkets, the internet stopped working, and a few warplanes crossed the sky over the capital. It was fiction. The series Zero day attack broke audience records while generating a deep debate in Taiwanese society: for the first time, fiction imagined an attack by the People's Republic of China. But the possibility of this attack is not fiction, according to a report recently made public by the United States government, in which they state that they have indications of China's intention to invade Taiwan in 2027.

"I thought I would fall crying and I would fall. I was afraid of falling and seeing the Cup on the ground," recalls Miquel Prat, historic captain of BM Granollers. 50 years ago, the club from Valles became the first Catalan club and the first in the entire state to win a continental title, the Recopa, by defeating German Dankersen in extra time in the final by 26 to 24 in the old municipal sports hall, the popular Parquet. A historic milestone achieved by a bunch of home-grown players who weren't even professionals. A golden generation, an era of tight jerseys, long beards, and dreams of freedom, with senyeras in the stands and a city devoted to a team that paved the way.

The north of Seville became for a few hours a part of Gipuzkoa. Real Sociedad won their fourth Copa del Rey at the La Cartuja stadium, after beating Atlètic de Madrid in a penalty shootout after a match that ended in a two-goal draw. Simeone's team, defeated, will now focus on trying to win the Champions League for the first time after falling against the Basques, who repeat the success of the 2021 Copa final in the same venue, although then they did it without fans as it was during the pandemic. On this occasion, the loyal followers of the Txuri-Urdin team were able to witness it live.

The north of Seville became, for a few hours, part of Gipuzkoa. Real Sociedad won their fourth Copa del Rey at the La Cartuja stadium, after beating Atlético de Madrid in a penalty shootout following a match that ended in a two-goal draw. Simeone's team, defeated, will now focus on trying to win the Champions League for the first time after falling to the Basques, who repeat the success of the 2021 Copa final in the same venue, although then they did it without fans, as it was during the pandemic. On this occasion, the loyal followers of the txuri-urdin team were able to experience it live.

The life of Alberto Edjogo-Owono Montalbán (Sabadell, 1984) has always revolved around a ball. He defended the jersey of clubs such as Sabadell, Sant Andreu, Granollers, or l'Olímpic de Xàtiva, in addition to passing through Espanyol's youth football. He was also an international for Equatorial Guinea, his father's native land. He is now a television commentator for DAZN, where he broadcasts the best matches of the First Division. Edjogo has just published Heridas en la piel (geoPlaneta), a book where he reflects on racism in the world of football.

Joy comes in waves. Barça already feels like La Liga champions and Espanyol is pulling its hair out, unable to win a single match this year. Some are already preparing the street celebrations and others are looking with some concern at the relegation zone, lest they end up suffering. In a derby marked by the awakening of Ferran Torres, who had been dormant for months, Barça did its homework and left Madrid far behind in the standings. Very far. 9 points behind, which seems like a world. The difference between Barça and Espanyol is also huge, although Manolo's team managed to compete in the second half, in which they managed to cause some concern for Barça. If the first half was blue and red, in the second Lamine Yamal and Rashford sealed the rout of a team that had suffered a little; not much, but had suffered.

In 1986, Iraq qualified to play in a World Cup for the first time. It was the years of Saddam Hussein, the military leader who attached great importance to sports to promote his regime. Trained by a former Barça player, the Brazilian Evaristo de Macedo, Iraq lost all three matches played in Mexico by a narrow margin. One of the team's stars, Basil Gorgis, was sent off in the match against Belgium and upon returning to Baghdad, he was imprisoned for 10 days as punishment. Gorgis then only thought about fleeing, as he was from the Assyrian minority, an ancient nation that embraced Christianity and suffered repression in Saddam's times. In fact, Basil's sister, Mariam, had been kidnapped and executed in 1979, a fact that was not communicated to the Gorgis family until years later.

With more than 450,000 inhabitants, Lleida will not have any football team playing in the top four categories of football next season. Smaller towns enjoy professional football and Lleida does not. Atlètic Lleida, the recently created club that has not yet managed to win over fans, will hardly avoid relegation to Tercera RFEF. With four games left, they are eight points from the relegation zone. And Lleida CF, the team that defends the long football tradition of the former Unió Esportiva Lleida, is precisely last in Tercera RFEF. Surely, they will also go down. In a city where basketball thrives, football suffers. But in the stands of the Tercera RFEF grounds, in the darkest moment, many fans have discovered many things. They have found beauty, despite the pain.

Cycling fans know that this season is historic. At 27 years old, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar seemed poised to achieve a never-before-seen feat. Pogacar, full of ambition, had decided to rewrite the history of the sport in general by achieving one of those milestones that are remembered for decades. Today he sought to be the fourth cyclist of all time to win the five monuments, the five historic one-day races. But Pogacar wasn't content with a success like this. If he triumphed in Paris-Roubaix, he seriously aspired to win all five races in the same season. In 100 years, only three men have won these five races, and he wanted to do it in the same year.

FIFA has opened a disciplinary proceeding against the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) after the racist chants produced in the friendly match between Spain and Egypt last week at Espanyol's stadium. “FIFA has initiated today a disciplinary proceeding against the Spanish Football Federation for the incidents that occurred during the friendly match against Egypt,” can be read in a statement. This is a preliminary step by the body that controls world football to decide on the sanctions imposed on the RFEF.

Barça can now start putting the bottles in the fridge to have them nice and cold for when it's time to celebrate. The first episode of the trilogy of duels against Atlético de Madrid served to hit the waterline of two Madrid teams at once. Lewandowski's saving goal sinks Real Madrid in the standings and, incidentally, harms an Atlético that has already understood that Barça wants to win everything just before the Champions League duel. The Whites look up and find it hard to see an indomitable Barça that knew how to react before halftime, when it seemed they could also lose. The competitive gene of this team is beyond debate. A team that faces challenges and overcomes them. It seems there is nothing to scare a team destined to win the League after winning a match that, at times, seemed like it would end in a draw in a second half where there was no energy left in the players' legs.

"There was a plan so that this boy could never be born, so that my children would never be born, so that none of our children would ever be born. Their laughter is our greatest revenge", published on social media Emir Suljagic, head of the Srebrenica memorial center, the Bosnian town where more than 8,000 people were murdered by Serb paramilitaries in July 1995. He also attached a photograph of the players of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team celebrating their qualification for the World Cup and their elimination of a giant like Italy. And in the center of the image appeared the young Esmir Bajraktarevic. A footballer, son of refugees who fled Srebrenica, the scene of one of the most recent genocides in the history of Europe.

Years ago, during Holy Week, a multitude of white sails fills the Mediterranean heading for Ibiza. The Ruta de la Sal, the offshore regatta with the most sailors in the Mediterranean, has been moving thousands of sailboats for over thirty years, participating in a competition born to commemorate a forgotten historical event. In 1846, when the Carlists managed to blockade Barcelona during the First Carlist War, a Barcelona businessman offered money to all sailors who volunteered to go to Ibiza to fetch salt and bring it to Barcelona, as it was running out. It is said that a schooner named Halcón Maltés, captained by the Greek Andrea Potrus, was the fastest to break the blockade.