Spain leaves Grenchen with three medals and good points for Paris 2024
MADRID, 12 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The European Track Cycling Championships ended this Sunday with the sixth place of the Spanish Albert Torres and Sebastián Mora in Madison, an appointment in Grenchen (Switzerland) in which Spain achieved three silver medals and valuable points for the qualifying process for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“I am happy with the result of the national team, especially in the Olympic trials. Helena Casas has been 8th in Keirin, the Madisons have also done well with 6th for Torres and Mora and 10th for Eukene and Laura. And I want to highlight the performance of the women because until now we were missing in this test and doing this result with the level that we had should give us morale to continue working for the future and try to also classify the women’s madison for the Games”, said the national coach , Félix García Casas, in statements provided by the Royal Spanish Cycling Federation.
“In addition, with the three medals that we have achieved, I think we completed a good performance, achieving a change in trend and that the runners are motivated to continue working for the future,” he added.
The last day of competition left a new title for the Germans Kluge and Reinhardt, ahead of Portugal and France. Torres and Mora, sixth, launched a final attack that helped teams of the likes of the Netherlands and Great Britain end up losing the lap, but they could only be 3rd in the final sprint and could not advance any further positions in the standings.
“Honestly, it wasn’t the result we wanted. We came here to fight for the medals, but in the first part of the race we weren’t where we needed to be and we couldn’t add that cushion of points that would put us ahead. In the end “In the last few laps, he went very, very fast and teams like the Netherlands and Great Britain lost a lap. Our attack came at that moment, too late and it didn’t allow us to improve positions. All of us They know that it is not the result we were looking for, but we will try to draw lessons for the future”, explained Torres and Mora.
In the women’s madison, the duo of the national team made up of Eukene Larrarte and Laura Rodríguez, who made their debut as a couple in a setting of this category, showed great courage until the final stretch to end up being tenth.
In the women’s keirin competition, Helena Casas was unable to reach the semifinals from the first round, but she was from the playoffs. The Catalan fought until the last round, framed in Final B, where she competed again to be second in the heat and eighth in the final classification.