David ramiro
Sports writing, Dec 28 (EFE) .- In an atypical year marked by the global pandemic of COVID-19, few international competitions have been played, although in those held Spanish athletes have obtained good results and continue to prepare with guarantees for the Tokyo Paralympic Games.
The Spanish Paralympic cycling team concluded the track World Cup held in Milton (Canada) with a balance of ten medals and with the leading role of Ricardo Ten, Alfonso Cabello and Maurice Eckhard, who were proclaimed world champions.
The Valencian Ricardo Ten, since he left the pool after twenty-two years as a swimmer in 2017, has only accumulated triumphs and records and has already become one of the best cyclists in the world. In Milton, he achieved four medals in category C1, two of them gold in the Scratch and Omnium tests.
Another Valencian, Maurice Eckhard, gave the surprise in the C2 category and was proclaimed world champion in Scratch, as was Alfonso Cabello, from Cordoba, in the C5 category, who once again reigned in the time trial kilometer test of which he is dominating since he won in 2014 in the Mexican town of Aguascalientes.
Loida Zabala from Extremadura, in the category of up to 50 kilos, won the silver medal at the Paralympic Weightlifting World Cup in Manchester (England) and took an important step towards qualifying for the Tokyo Games.
Zabala, who also revalidated the title of champion of Spain in Madrid, managed to lift 95 kilos in her first attempt, a record that she could not overcome later despite trying to reach 100, the goal she had set.
In wheelchair basketball, the League was deserted and the only major championship was the Copa del Rey in Madrid, which resulted in a 65-58 victory for Ilunion over Amiab Albacete, being the tenth consecutive title for the Madrid team.
The Extremadura paddler Juan Antonio Valle won the silver medal in the Sprint Canoeing World Cup in Szeged (Hungary). Valle thus achieved its best historical result in an international competition on the same regatta field where in 2019 it obtained the classification for what will be its first Paralympic Games.
Fifteen-year-old Madrid-born Audrey Pascual won the Paralympic Alpine Skiing European Cup by adding four victories and a third place in the category of athletes who compete sitting down. The Foundation skier also closed last season as the leader of the general classification that adds up the points achieved in the slalom and giant events.
Also outstanding were the triumphs of Álvaro and Daniel Gavilán, who achieved a silver and a bronze medal at the World Cup of judo for the blind held in Tiblisi (Georgia).
In swimming, Spain closed the Berlin World Series with a loot of 35 medals (12 gold, 12 silver and 11 bronze), a minimum A and six B for the Tokyo Games and two world records by Toni Ponce in the 100 breaststroke and 200 breaststroke of the SB5 class.
Finally, the Spanish ParaTriarmada won nine medals in October in the Paralympic Triathlon World Cup held in Alhandra (Portugal), in the only international event on the calendar this year since the global COVID-19 pandemic was decreed.
Jairo Ruiz, from Almeria, a bronze medalist at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, achieved victory in the PTS5 category for the physically disabled, as did Daniel Molina (PTS3), Marta Francés (PTS4) and Susana Rodríguez in tandem for the visually impaired and their guide Sara Loehr and Héctor Catalá with their guide Ángel Salamanca.
The silver medal was achieved by Joaquín ‘Kini’ Carrasco, Carmen González and ‘Jota’ García together with their guide Pedro Andújar, while Lionel Morales was hung with a bronze. EFE
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