Gerard Descarrega, king of the 400

Special Envoy to Tokyo

Updated:29/08/2021 14: 00h

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Gerard Download reigns supreme in speed over the tartan, gold in 400 meters with overwhelming superiority. A time of 50.42 for him and his guide Guillermo Rojo, ahead of the Namibian Shikongo and the French Makunda. Second gold for the Spanish, after Rio 2016, and medal 18 for the Spanish delegation in Tokyo 2020.

The race was his from start to finish, with a final arreón on the straight that he even allowed himself the luxury of enjoying, as he later confessed. Beside him, his eyes, Guillermo Rojo, to whom he was attached by a rope barely eight inches long, grasping the ring, index and middle fingers of the right hand of Downloading, with those of the left of Rojo. A whole. “I will confess that when I was 13 or 14 years old, I imagined being at a Games and I would cry. Competing against the best I could do for a long time, but being here is a completely different thing because it transcends mere competition. It’s amazing. Gives me the work together in an individual sport. A very pleasant routine for me », Guillermo Rojo, the eyes of Gerard Download, speaks for ABC. It is your guide and your confidant, who tells you what is for breakfast at the Olympic Village, and who now enjoys a Paralympic gold. First for Rojo, but second for Unloading, which has already been champion in this 400 meter test in Rio 2016.

Discharging needs Rojo to succeed, as he was born with retinitis pigmentosa, which deteriorated his vision until it was practically nil. I study Psicology almost by family tradition, but also because, as an elite athlete, he knows that the head is 50% of the success, not just the legs. In your case, a percentage also corresponds to Red, astronaut trainer of the European Space Station and his half. «Trust works as a personal relationship, day by day, the best thing is to live together. Once he sees that I take him to a good place, he trusts. And it is not that Gerard is very afraid of anything, “continues Rojo. Is right. In 2018, Unloading undertook a month and a half trip through New Zealand with the only luggage of a backpack, a sleeping bag and his blind cane. It was no longer enough to live the adventure. He also ascended the Aneto peak (3,404 meters), in the Aragonese Pyrenees, and the Allalinhorn (4,027), in Switzerland.

«There is no one happier right now. It is pure happiness. We have made the perfect race», Summarized Unloading with the medal in hand. “They have been a complicated few years, each one has lived through the pandemic as best they could. But we have had a change of coach, a change of city, Gerard’s operation. It has been a story of uncertainty, but you have to put your nose in life. Going against the current: how do you change coaches? How do you change your coach one year after the Games? And we are here to say that it can be done and that it turned out well, “continued Rojo.

«They have not been easy years. I had to operate on my foot (for a benign tumor). In the pandemic I had a very bad time, locked in a small apartment. I decided to change cities because I was not enjoying the sport. I had my daughter (Martina born in 2018) and my partner to Seville and I went there. We have had months of vomiting two or three days a week. The last five months have been agonizing. I’ve given it my all and it could have gone wrong. But I imagine doing things well pays off. In Dubai it did not go well, but this makes up for everything. Yesterday we had a spectacular day, we ran very well. And today I have been able to enjoy the last straight, because I saw that we were winning, “confessed Unloading.

Regarding the future, athlete and guide will take a vacation, evaluate the result and hope that there will be a pair for a while. They are a whole. A whole of gold.

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