Spain, with the same 5 Rio medals in the middle of the Olympics.

The spanish olympic team has curdled this Saturday his best day so far in competition in the Tokyo Olympics. At last a oro thanks to the great competition in trap by mixed teams of the Olympic shooting of Alberto Fernández and Fátima Gálvez. Both have culminated an excellent track record that only lacked an Olympic medal, which has come in a big way. In addition, the first day has also been added to the end with more than one medal after getting Pablo Carreño an invaluable bronze in tennis, where he has defeated nothing more and nothing less than Novak Djokovic.

Spain thus reaches the second Sunday of competition with five medals. To that Alberto and Fatima’s gold the silvers of Adriana Cerezo (taekwondo, -49 kg) and Maialen Chourraut (slalom canoeing, K1), in addition to that Carreño bronze and that achieved in previous days by David valero on mountain bike. Definitely, a vintage of medals equal to that of Rio 2016 and that of Atlanta 1996, only surpassed at this point by the ten that were added in Barcelona 1992 and six in Athens 2004.

The nine golds and one silver With those who started the home Games, they are still a very distant challenge for the Spanish team, but the truth is that the start of these Tokyo Games is not at all out of step with what has been experienced in previous events. After Barcelona (festival of nine golds, launched by the candle, by José Manuel Moreno, José María van der Ploeg, Francisco Sánchez Luna / Jordi Calafat, Theresa Zabell / Patricia Guerra, Luis Doreste / Domingo José Manrique, Martín López Zubero, Daniel Plaza, Miriam Blasco and Almudena Muñoz and silver by Natalia Vía-Dufresne), the beginning in Athens.

Then they were achieved six initial medals that with the passage of time they ended up being converted into seven (silvers of María Quintanal, Paquillo Fernández, the dressage team, Rafa Trujillo and Natalia Vía-Dufresne / Sandra Azón and bronze of Sergi Escobar. They have been added on those dates, years later , Manolo Martínez’s bronze for an official start with seven medals.

In addition, the numbers of two other appointments are equalized. In River, after the eighth day, they were added five medals. Of course, three were gold (Mireia Belmonte, Maialen Chourraut and Rafa Nadal and Marc López), for the bronzes of Mireia and Lydia Valentín. In Atlanta 1996, sailing (golds by Fernando León Boissier / José Luis Ballester and Theresa Zabell / Begoña Vía-Dufresne) and judo (silver by Ernesto Pérez Lobo and bronzes by Yolanda Soler and Isabel Fernández) initially launched Spain in the medal table.

The challenge of approaching the twenty medals

With a similar start, therefore, to the best Spanish Games, always leaving Barcelona on the sidelines, the challenge of knowing if it will be possible dream of twenty medals only achieved in Barcelona 1992 (22) and in Athens 2004 (20). Spain has touched that figure since then (19 in Beijing 2008, 18 in London 2012 and 17 in Rio de Janeiro 2016), but has not managed to reach it.

Three pillars will define in the second week if it is possible to aspire to be closer to twenty than the mandatory target of about fifteen that Spain should have in hand by level and options. Sailing, team sports and canoeing must be the mainstay that sustains the Spanish delegation.

The sail reaches the final days of competition with Spain in the fight in many classes. That right to dream of a high number of total medals in Japan will largely depend on her, who left Rio emptiness.

With the Laser Radial, the Laser Standard, the RS: X feminine and the RS: X masculine already finished and without success, the fight is in progress. Finn (Joan Cardona is second in the absence of two regattas and the ‘medal race’), 49er FX (Támara Echegoyen and Berta Betanzos They are fourth, four points from the podium and seven from the gold in the absence of the ‘medal race’), 470 males (Jordi Xammar and Nicolás Rodríguez They are fourth to one point from bronze and six from silver in the absence of four regattas and the ‘medal race’), Nacra 17 (Tara Pacheco and Florian Trittel they are fifth eight points from the podium in the absence of three races and the ‘medal’) and 49er (Diego Botín and Iago López They will face the ‘medal race’ as third tied with the second and four points from the gold). Silvia Mas and Patricia Cantero’s women’s 470 is further from the medals.

With sailing on many fronts, the second shuttle should be the canoeing. A medal has already been obtained in slalom thanks to the always effective Maialen Chourraut and this same Monday kayaking starts in calm waters, another usual bastion of medals for the Spanish team. The K4-500 (Saúl Craviotto, Carlos Arévalo, Marcus Cooper Walz and Rodrigo Germade), the K2-1000 (Íñigo Peña and Paco Cubelos), the K1-200 (with a double bullet with Carlos Arévalo and Saúl Craviotto), the C2-1000 by Cayetano García de la Borbolla and Pablo Martínez or the K1-200 Teresa Portela’s start a priori as multiple options for a Spanish team that aspires to convert several of them.

The third axis, of course, must be the team sports. With the men’s soccer already in the semifinals and the other eight participants (two basketballs, two handballs, two water polo shirts and two grass hockeys) in the quarterfinals, it will be key to dreaming of overcoming previous Games to be able to convert several of these options. The quarter crosses will therefore be decisive.

These sports will be the main attractions of the second week of Games in a Spanish key, but not the only ones. The karate, (with a clear double medal option with Sandra Sánchez and Damián Quintero), the artistic gymnastics (with Ray Zapata in the floor final this Sunday), the Athletics (with Ana Peleteiro this Sunday, Orlando Ortega or Mohamed Katir) or him boxing (with Gabriel Escobar to a medal victory) will focus the attention in the coming days. Because, yes, in these first days, options in swimming, judo or some more in taekwondo have escaped, but more complicated medals have also been achieved in tenis o mountain bike that suppose a shuttle for keep dreaming of a great performance.