PARIS, Sep. 8 (by EUROPA PRESS special correspondent Ramón Chamorro) –
Spanish athlete Alberto Suárez was delighted to win a silver medal in the T12 marathon at the Paris Paralympic Games on Sunday, which “was a great feeling” and he acknowledged that it gave him motivation and “strength” for the final stretch when he saw that he only had two rivals ahead of him and that one of them was “dead” and could “catch” him.
“It’s a great feeling, it’s very exciting because in the end it’s been many months of work to be here. I arrived in Tokyo a little injured and that makes you have a bittersweet feeling, but the work has been reflected in this second place and I can enjoy it with everyone who was here and those who helped me train day after day to be able to be here and have this medal,” said Suárez after the race.
The Asturian stressed that both the Tunisian Wajdi Boukhili and the Moroccan El Amin Chentouf “started off very strongly from kilometre zero” and that he did not know if there were “two or three” ahead of them. “I had this doubt about what position I was in and my coach had told me that it was a bit risky to start off below that pace of 3:20 and I tried to stay there in that secondary group at the beginning a bit sheltered until kilometre 10,” he pointed out.
“When I saw that the pace was not what we had thought because I thought I would be more in the 3:23, 3:24 range, we were above that 3:25, and I told myself that I was going to try to pull ahead and in that risk I was not entirely sure because the Tunisian and the Russian stuck to me, but I was lucky that at 33 they began to drop off and at 34 or 35 I saw at the refreshment station that there were two ahead of me and that gave me a bit of motivation,” he said.
The 46-year-old athlete from Oviedo then received the information that the second-placed athlete “was dead.” “I could catch him and that strength was what allowed me to reach the end there,” said the triple Paralympic medalist.
“I think that the motivation of finishing second is what makes me feel a little more whole now. I had good feelings throughout the race, although there were moments, I won’t say of a crisis, both physical and mental, with the wind against you, a slope or a turn that you didn’t control well, that you went over and your legs suffered. I feel whole and I hope that now I don’t have any relapses, because I always give the medical service a scare,” he said.
Regarding the route, he thought that “it was going to be a bit of a trap, with some turns, some cobblestone sections.” “It is true that there are difficult sections that take us along river paths, a bit atypical for an important marathon like a Paralympic one. This last section was a bit heavy on my legs, but I think it was because of the cobblestones, because I didn’t step well, and in the end I think it was less difficult than I thought,” he said.
“This medal is dedicated to many people, the truth is, above all to my family, to my son, who turns 15 tomorrow. In 2012 (when he won gold in London) that day he turned 3. Above all to him, to my wife who is here, who are the ones who put up with me day after day at home, with my bad times and my good ones too. And to my coach who is constantly by my side, to people who help me train every day there in Oviedo,” said Suárez.