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Diego Rodríguez, the 9 years of a gold champion

The Cangué karateka returned with a gold medal Diego Rodriguez Lopez, 9 years old, of the first national visual parakarate competition organized by the Royal Spanish Karate Federation. He is the first and only Asturian to compete in this modality and for his family and coach, more than the result, what they value is the door that is opening in this sport for children with disabilities.

In his case, he was born with ocular albinism, which causes visual disturbances such as photophobia and very reduced vision. Besides, there are other difficulties for social interaction. But everything disappears when she attends the competitions, gets on the tatami and begins to perform the katas. “He works very well, I’m not saying it just because he wins, but because of his skill and technique,” says his coach, Francisco Martins.

Diego Rodríguez has only been practicing karate for a year and the national competition that he attended on Saturday, November 5, in Ávila, was the first in which he had to do it with a mask, which meant an added difficulty for him to complete exercise correctly. “I’m very happy, at first I was a little nervous, but when I started I wasn’t anymore,” says the young champion, who is waiting for the grand final to be held in A Coruña in December.

His mother is proud of the progress she is seeing in her son. “He had to do two katas with a mask and all the technicians were amazed at how perfect he did it”, emphasizes Lucía López. But without a doubt, what makes the family happiest is to see “how doors are opening for him and for other children with similar situations, in Asturias there was no parakarate and he got the federation to take it into account, and it also helps him sports a lot”, emphasizes his mother.

Three days a week, two hours each, is the time that Diego dedicates to karate, last year he even combined it with athletics. A commitment to sports that, according to his mother, greatly favors his development. “He comes happy from training, it also gives him autonomy, security and socially it helps him a lot,” he underlines.

In fact, for Lucía López, her son is a champion not only because of the gold medal he managed to take home, but also because he managed to compete. “For him, what he did has a lot of merit, the real medal is that he didn’t stick to me and went up on the mat to compete,” she explains. Something that she hopes will serve as an example for other families “so that they see that despite the difficulties they are capable of doing many things and that sport is very useful for them to achieve it,” she emphasizes.

In his short career, this is the fourth competition that this young athlete has attended, since he also participated in two regional leagues, in which he was champion, and in the Villa Cangas del Narcea International Karate Trophy held in June.

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