The Mexican champion of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, Juan Diego García López, concluded 2022 ranked first in the ParaTaekwondo world ranking; His teammates Claudia Romero and Jessica García were in second place in their divisions, among the Mexicans who rose on this list.
The success of the native of Sinaloa in the K44 -70 kilograms category, was achieved by his harvest of five gold medals obtained in his international competitions of the year.
The national team achieved a golden year, after winning the gold medals, in its new category: -70 Kg, in the first series of Grand Prix, which is carried out for the specialty: the Manchester Grand Prix, the Paris Grand Prix and the Sofia Grand Prix; In addition, he won the gold medal at the European Championship in Manchester and the Para Pan American Championship in Rio de Janeiro; Juan Diego started the year with 252.00 points and ended it with 492.00.
These achievements led the Mexican to be nominated by the Americas Paralympic Committee (APC), as one of the eight candidates for the best athlete of the year from the continent. In addition, at the beginning of December he was named ‘Best Male Athlete’, at the Pan American Taekwondo Union (PATU) Awards Gala, in competition with all able-bodied and para taekwondo athletes from the Pan American region.
For her part, the Lima 2019 Parapan American Games runner-up, Claudia Romero Rodríguez, closed the year as number two in the world ranking in the K44 -47 kilos category, thanks to the six medals she obtained in international competitions.
A few days ago, La Puebla won the bronze medal at the Grand Prix Final in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a medal that was added to her gold medals at the Manchester Grand Prix, the Sao Paulo Pan-Am Series and the Para Pan-American Championship of Rio de Janeiro, in addition to having a silver badge at the Paris Grand Prix and another bronze at the Manchester European Championship. Claudia started 2022 with 65.72 points and ended it with 237.98 points.
Similarly, Jessica García Quijano from Yucatecan also ended the year in second place in the world ranking, in her division, K44 -52 Kg, after achieving a harvest of six metals throughout 2022.
Jessica García added the gold medals in the Pan-Am Series in Sao Paulo, in the European Championship in Manchester and in the Para-Pan American Championship in Rio de Janeiro. In addition, she won silver medals at the Manchester Grand Prix, the Paris Grand Prix and the Sofia Grand Prix. The Yucatecan started the year with 60.12 and closed it with 248.12 points.
On the other hand, Luis Mario Nájera from Chiapas finished 2022 as number six in the world ranking in the K44 -80 kilograms division, after achieving a harvest of four international medals.
Luis Mario Nájera won the gold medal at the Para-Pan American Championship in Rio de Janeiro, the silver medals at the Pan-Am Series in Sao Paulo and the Sofia Grand Prix, as well as bronze at the European Championship in Manchester. He started the year with 22.04 points and closed it with 143.16 points.
Meanwhile, Fernanda Vargas Fernández from the capital ended 2022 as number nine in the world ranking in the K44 +65 kilos category.
Fernanda Vargas, who began her journey in high performance this year, added the silver medal at the Pan-Am Series in Sao Paulo and the bronze metal at the Para Pan American Championship in Rio de Janeiro, to close with 56.64 points.
In this way, the national ParaTaekwondo team, led by coach Jannet Alegría Peña, is heading towards next year’s international commitments, in which they will seek to qualify for the Santiago de Chile 2023 Parapan American Games and continue with the addition of points towards Paralympic Games Paris 2024.
With information and photo from CONADE.
