Walter Herrera
[email protected] | Wednesday December 29, 2021 12:47 pm
The sport of Costa Rica lived a dream year with positive results in high performance and with a promising future for the new generation of athletes that already brings triumphs to the country, according to a balance made by the National Olympic Committee.
Olympic and Paralympic Games
In the last twelve months, Costa Rica not only managed to classify the largest number of athletes in its history to the Olympic Games, with a total of eleven, but for the first time the National Anthem of our country was heard in style in a few Paralympic Games, with gold won in Tokyo by Sherman Guity Guity in the 200 meter dash T64 and silver in the 100 meter T64.
In those jousts – held from August 24 to September 5 – there were also outstanding presentations such as Andrés Molina in Taekwondo, who placed fifth in the category of +75 kilograms.
At the Tokyo Olympic Games -from July 23 to August 8- the effort and discipline of the national athletes yielded the expected fruit. Kenneth Tencio stroked bronze and placed a historic fourth in BMX Freestyle; Brisa Hennessy made the whole country proud with a fifth place in surfing; and Ignacio Sancho gave Costa Rica its first victory in judo of an Olympic Games and reached ninth place.
Read more: Project for the sponsorship of liquor in sport presents vices according to the Constitutional Court
For the first time, two Costa Rican athletes starred in an unprecedented event in Tokyo: being the first pair of Costa Rican sisters to compete in the same Olympics. They are Andrea Vargas -who placed ninth in the 100-meter hurdles- and Noelia Vargas, who finished in 21st place of the 20-km march, among 58 competitors.
Junior Pan American Games
On the other hand, and in the framework of the first Cali 2021 Junior Pan American Games, Costa Rica shone and a new generation of athletes managed to place the country as the best delegation in Central America by adding 10 medals; 2 golds, 3 silvers and 5 bronzes.
Read more: Costa Rica held its Mini Olympics with children from 6 months to 8 years
In addition, in most of the 21 disciplines in which the country was represented, athletes were among the best 8 in America. In total, they won 48 Pan American diplomas. Recognition is awarded to all athletes who placed between first and eighth overall.
Other triumphs
At an individual level there were also historical results such as the world runner-up in racquetball for Andrés Acuña and the ticket among the best 12 in the world to be in the World Games; the classification of Brisa Hennessy and Carlos Muñoz to the World Surfing Tour; and Kenneth Tencio’s first place in the Pan American BMX Freestyle.
Costa Rica has a rapidly growing sports hotbed and by 2022 the goal is for the sporting results to be even higher and for the Olympic cycle to successfully complete the biggest sporting event: the Olympic Games, whose next venues will be in Paris in 2024 and in Los Angeles in 2028.
