The Gipuzkoan Jokin Altuna, current champion, and the Navarrese Joseba Ezkurdia, the two great dominators of the ‘cage’ in the last five years, settle on Sunday at the Bizkaia fronton in Bilbao a final match of the Four and a Half Championship, one of the three major professional tournaments of the Basque pelota season. Altuna, finalist of the last seven editions of the limited and three times champion, starts with a slight favoritism of the chair. The striker from Amezketa also arrives in excellent form after overwhelming the two revelations, Darío Gómez and Aitor Elordi, in his last matches of the competition.
But if there is a rival that has taken the measure of the Gipuzkoan star, it is Ezkurdia. Both have already met in two finals, those of 2018 and 2019, both resolved in favor of the experienced 31-year-old Navarrese pelotari, five more than the 26 of an Altuna who won the ‘txapelas’ of 2017, 2020 and 2021. The winner will take a giant leap in the list of winners of the limited, in which Amar Olaizola, with seven titles, is guaranteed his reign for a few more years. If he wins, Altuna would add four. The same as one of the greatest legends of Basque pelota, Julián Retegi. And if the one who wins is Ezkurdia, the winner would match his rival and friend, and also other pelotaris with enormous track records such as Patxi Eugi, Juan Martínez de Irujo and Jorge Nagore, also from Navarra.
In choosing the material for the final, the champion set aside two balls of 105.5 and 106.5 grams a priori less lively and with less exit from the front than those of 105.6 and 106.4 grams for which he opted for the candidate. This final of the Four and a Half will be the second game of a festival that will begin at 5:00 p.m. with the clash of companies between Urrutikoetxea-Mariezkurrena II and Elezkano II-Rezusta.