The news broke this weekend. The surprise, rather. Cristina Teruel, new champion of Spain in absolute category. With 16 years. Her current category is Junior, but her great performance made her coaches start signing her up for full appointments to see how far she would go. A second place in an Absolute Master and the gold in the Andalusian Championship caused her plan to continue in the national one. There she climbed to the top of the podium after defeating Laura Santos in three sets: 15-21 / 24-22 / 21-12 in one hour and 6 minutes of play. And now she is the new national badminton sensation.
Cristina Teruel was born in Almería and there she began to have a badminton racket in her hand at the Sports Schools of the Almería Badminton Club, later joining the ranks of the same entity. Her sports life changed when she was 13 years old, when she moved to Andalusian Center Specialized in Sports Technificationof the Andalusian Federation, in Huelva, after requesting a scholarship by winning silver and bronze that same year in the Spanish Championship in his category.
And he arrives at the residence. He lives, studies and trains in Huelva. It’s the fourth season of her here. And while he trains with the Technification Center she wears the colors of the Huelva Badminton Club to compete, with whom he signed at club level.
In his career he has several calls with the Spanish selection. She was fifth for teams in the European under 17 in Slovenia and ninth in the women’s individual. That same year she was first in the European circuit and seventh in the European ranking.
Currently, in addition to astonishing in the absolute category in Spain, at an international level he steps on the mats in the junior category. And he has like main objectives get places for the Junior European Championship, in August, and the junior world championship in November.
“If there is a word that defines her, it is hard-working. It is true that she has talent, but in her case, today’s work is the key to success. She is hard-working and very self-sacrificing and for her age she is very professional, with ideas very clear”, explained to Huelva Information the coach responsible for the Technification Center, Carlos Longo, who has been preparing for Teruel for four years. The ceiling of this player is a mystery. “I can’t tell you because our work philosophy is to work day by day.” That yes, Cristina Teruel, with 16 years, can say that she is champion of Spain. And “for one day,” Longo pointed out, she was not the youngest Spanish champion in history. One day less it took another player to hang that same medal who was already pointing ways at that time and who has ended up breaking all the ceilings of this sport. Carolina Marín.
