Sprinter Nery Brenes will run his first 400-meter flat race of the year today, and he will do so at the World Indoor Championships being held in Portland. This will be the start of Nery's competitive season, which will culminate with his participation in the Rio Olympic Games in August.

Nery will run in heat 4, alongside two strong competitors who have run below 46 seconds this season and two others who are close to 46 seconds. Nery, however, is the one with the best personal mark in his heat with the 45.11 he achieved when he was world champion at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul four years ago.

His coach, Emmanuel Chanto, commented that the goal is for Nery to achieve a time under 45 (45 and a few hundredths), which should be enough to reach the final. "It's very difficult to make a prediction because it will depend on how the races go, when you run indoors it's harder because everyone fights for a lane in the first 150 meters," explained Chanto, who says that Nery's goal is always to win.

Based on what has been seen in training, Chanto believes Nery is capable of reaching the podium. "You can see the confidence and motivation, he goes in confident because he has the experience, he has already run four world indoor championships and the times we've seen in training have us satisfied," concluded the coach.

Nery starts the 2016 season with the peace of mind of having qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games since June of last year. He also managed to run his second-best outdoor track mark with the 44.80 he achieved in August of last year at the National Stadium.

His race will be today at 1:06 p.m. If he qualifies, he would run the semifinal today at 8:45 p.m. You can check schedules and results on theofficial page of the event.