Track & field's Twitter generation

Spanish track & field is growing old. Most of the big names who have earned titles with their performances on the track - Marta Domínguez, Nuria Fernández, Natalia Rodríguez, María Vasco and Ruth Beitia, Chema Martínez and Jesús España - are now respected thirtysomethings and the fans sit hoping at each tournament that the youngsters will slam a fist on the table and say: "Now it's our turn."

Some, such as 800m runners Kevin López and Luis Alberto Marco, have started to do that in the wake of that intermediate generation made up of the middle-distance runners Arturo Casado and Manuel Olmedo. But a major injection of new blood has been lacking.

The European Under-23 Championships, which finished in Ostrava in the Czech Republic on Sunday, provided a golden opportunity to gauge the state of Spanish track & field little more than a month before the seniors head off to the World Championships in South Korea. And looking at the results, the future doesn't look too bad - seven medals (one gold, three silvers and three bronzes) - though they do raise one important question: what about the women? Of the Spanish female athletes, only the walker Julia Takacs managed a medal.

These seven Spanish medalists are the Twitter generation - athletes who talk about their progress and their frustrations in the social networks, who warm up with messages of 140 characters and guarantee the future of Spanish track & field.

- Sebastián Martos. Gold in the 3,000m steeplechase. He has been the surprise of the tournament: for the medal - the only gold - and for his time (8.35.35). Born in Jaén 22 years ago, he lives and trains at the Madrid High Performance Center under the guidance of Dionisio Alonso and alongside European 5,000m silver medalist Jesús España - one of those groups famed for its fair play and vocally critical of those who dope. Martos already has the minimum qualification time for the Worlds in Daegu.

- Abdelaziz Merzougui. Silver in the 3,000m steeplechase (8.36.21). Of Moroccan origin, he arrived in the Canaries in 2006 in a small boat when he was just 14 and received Spanish nationality last year. He is the European junior cross-country champion.

- Kevin López. Silver in the 800m with a time of 1.46.93. You can't talk about the Andalusian athlete as up-and-coming because he already proved himself last year at the European Championships in Barcelona, where he finished sixth, and was European junior champion at the distance. The 22-year-old shares his training in Seville with Luis Alberto Marco. Small, compact and explosive, he shines at a distance that has brought Spanish athletics few big successes.

- Javier Cienfuegos. Silver in the hammer with a throw of 73.03m. The Extremaduran joined the select group of Eastern European throwers who dominate the discipline a couple of years ago. It all started in Montijo (Cáceres) where an athletics school opened and Cienfuegos decided to leave soccer behind forever. With an imposing physique and an affable manner, he broke the world junior hammer record in 2009. Having just turned 22, he has already competed, though with little luck, in World and European Championships.

- Miguel Ángel Santos. Bronze in the high jump, with 2.21m. He started excelling a couple of years ago when he achieved the highest jump by a junior that season (2.27m). He has suffered the odd injury, but now seems recovered. The Valencian won bronze at the World Juniors in 2008.

- David Bustos. Bronze in the 1,500m. Another well-known face in the senior team. He competed in the 800m in the European Championships in Barcelona.

- Julia Takacs. Bronze in the 20km walk - 1.31.55. Born in Budapest, she has been in Spain for six years and has been dubbed the new María Vasco, though more for her similar physique than for her style of walking.