Lorea Ibarzabal

Lorea Ibarzabal Padorno (born 7 November 1994) is a Spanish middle-distance runner. She finished fourth in the 800 metres at the 2023 European Indoor Championships.

Ibarzabal won two Spanish national titles (800 m indoors).

Career

In February 2021, after she overcame a significant injury, 26-year-old Lorea Ibarzabal won her first national title, with a victory in the 800 metres at the Spanish Indoor Championships.

In February 2023, she ran the second-fastest time by a Spanish woman ever in the indoor 800 m, clocking 2:01.00 in Metz. The same month, she claimed national indoor 800 m title for the second time. In March, the 28-year-old competed in the event at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul. It was the Ibarzabal's first major competition representing Spain, and she said that the semi-final was additionally emotional for her as she was competing on the birthday of her running partner Bea, who had died four months earlier. In the final she came within 0.02 s of bronze medal, but ran a personal best of 2:00.87 to finish fourth.

In July 2023, she broke two minutes for the 800m, running 1:59.88 in Madrid.

She competed for Spain at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships – Women's 800 metres. She ran an indoors personal best in her qualifying heat with a time of 2:00.56.

Personal life

Ibarzabal was born in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria but is now based in Madrid and trains in Valladolid. She studied engineering at the University of Southern California. Her father, Daniel Ibarzabal, is from Zumarraga in Gipuzkoa province of the Basque country. Her mother, Patricia Padorno, was a middle-distance runner in the 1980s. Her maternal grandfather is a Spanish poet Manuel Padorno.

National titles

• Spanish Indoor Athletics Championships
  • 800 metres: 2021, 2023, 2024