Carolina Marín, excited with European gold around her neck. /
The woman from Huelva conquers her sixth continental title in a big way in Madrid and leaves behind the serious knee injury that broke her dreams of the Tokyo Games and the World Cup in Huelva eleven months ago
Carolina Marin is back. Eleven months of hard recovery along the way, everything but a path of roses that only the great champions can walk with an iron will to return to the top. There were weeks left for the Tokyo Olympics, where the woman from Huelva aspired to revalidate the gold of Rio’2012, when a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament and the two menisci of her left knee put an end to all her dreams .
Goodbye to the Games, the dream event for any athlete, and goodbye to the World Cup in December 2021 in Huelva, his home. However, nothing could stop the inexhaustible competitive spirit of one of the best Spanish athletes. Carolina Marín set her sights on the European Championships in Madrid and in the Spanish capital she has ended up winning her sixth continental badminton title, all six of hers in a row and which places her as the best in the history of the women’s individual tournament.
The last obstacle at the Municipal Sports Center of Gallur, dressed in full dress for the occasion, was the Scottish Kirsty Gilmour, determined to finally win European gold in her third final. Nothing could do before a gale. An initial run of 5-0 in the first set gave a good example of the Spanish’s intentions, intractable to close the first set with a resounding 21-10.
In favor of the work, the tone did not change one iota in the second set, also resolved in favor of Carolina 21-12. Tears of emotion, forged in so many days of rehabilitation, fine-tuning and hard training to return to being what it was. The Olympic champion and three-time world champion is back, with her eyes fixed on the Tokyo World Cup next August, and perhaps also on the 2024 Paris Games, the ultimate revenge for her injury misfortune.
He leaves Madrid with his sixth gold medal in Europe but also with the necessary sensations to aspire to everything in the future. Five wins and only one set lost in the entire tournament. She debuted with a convincing 21-10 and 21-6 against the Czech Katerina Tomalova in the second round; she beat the Ukrainian Maria Ulitina in the third round (21-7 and 21-8); she suffered against the Danish Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt in quarters (21-11, 14-21 and 21-17); she secured the medal against the Turkish Neshilan Yigit (21-14 and 21-13) to finally be crowned again against an impotent Gilmour.
