The Secretary General for Sports, José Ramón Lete Lasa, accompanied by the President of the Galician Badminton Federation, Rodrigo Sanjurjo, received the boys and girls who have just won the championship this morning at the Galician Center for Sports Technification from Spain under 17 and runner-up under 15 at CESA 2021 held in Huelva. Lete Lasa highlighted the “excellent level of Galician badminton and the bright future that these results predict for our youngest athletes, a sign of the excellent work being done in Galicia in grassroots sport.” The Galician president also recalled the determined commitment of the Xunta de Galicia for quality sports infrastructures such as the new badminton pavilion designed for the CGTD.
The under 17s present at the meeting with the general secretary and who train in the CGTD were Rodrigo Sanjurjo and Nikol Carulla (CB A Estrada), Sofía Álvarez and Basilio Puerto (CB As Neves), Carlota Martínez (CB San Amaro) and Ana Nóvoa and Martín Iglesias (CP Athlos). Manuel Míguez (CB A Estrada) completed the squad of the Galician team.
In the case of the under 15s, Alba Prada, Paula Noya and Mateo Rey (CM San Amaro), Iziar Barcala (CB A Estrada), Lia Illan (CB Cíes) and Manuel López (CB Athlos) participated in the reception. Adrián Rodríguez and Iker Rodríguez (CB As Neves) were also part of the Spanish runner-up team.
In addition, Lete Lasa underlined the work of the technicians and coaches of the different teams such as Sara Ezquerro, Rubén Espinosa and Rafael Vázquez (main coach of the CGTD), as well as the technical team of the CGTD itself completed with Manuel Brea (second coach), Adrián Cid (physical trainer), Iago Roel (psychologist) and Brais Alves (parabadminton coach).
Precisely, Lete Lasa highlighted adapted sport as one of the most important lines of action that the General Secretariat for Sport is developing, as shown by the fact that the Galician delegation present at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo was the largest in history with 16 athletes. In this sense, he recognized the great work of Ignacio Fernández, a parabádminton player who this year resides at the CGTD. It should be noted that the technical center this year has two other athletes with disabilities, the paracanoes Elena Naveiro and Nicolás Martínez, achieving the highest number in their history.
