MADRID, 15 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish athlete Ana Peleteiro arrives at the Indoor Athletics World Championships in Belgrade “with a little insecurity”, but confident that at the Stark Arena “the job will come out” and she will be able to be in the fight for some medals for which she believes that it will be necessary to jump “more than 14.60 meters”.
“I’m going to Belgrade a little to see what happens. I arrive with a little insecurity, but I’ve trained well and when the job is there sooner or later it ends up coming out, and I trust it will come out there,” Peleteiro told the media. after Tuesday’s farewell ceremony for the team that will compete in the Serbian capital starting this Friday.
The Galician believes that her best jumps “will end up coming out” and that “the pieces will end up fitting” despite the fact that last week at the Paris meeting “the marks were not very good”, which she blamed on the “track” and herself . “I was a bit tired, my momentum race didn’t fit me and I had to modify it there. My coach wasn’t there either and the track was very complicated, with a lot of bumps, and we’re not used to that. I’m left with the fact that the technique was fine and that everything has to fit together”, he underlined.
“Mentally I am very good, I am very happy and that is essential for things to work. Everything is going very well in training, there is a very good atmosphere and that also helps me rest every day and be able to say that I am calm. to the World Cup with my best record, but I’m healthy, which doesn’t usually happen, because I always have some discomfort on the indoor track”, added the bronze medalist in Tokyo 2020.
In any case, she made it clear that “the gold medal is not the most important thing” for her either. “The most important thing is to enjoy yourself, that people enjoy and leave some values in the people who see you. I have never won gold in a World Cup or Games, but people see me as a benchmark and I’ll stick with that”, Indian.
“The medals, the records, are the pear and I hope I can say that I have eight world golds, but I don’t think I’ll get it. Possibly, when I retire, people will remember Ana Peleteiro as a reference in this world and that’s what that fills me the most. Life does not end with athletics”, warned Peleteiro.
The Spanish athlete, bronze in the last ‘indoor’ World Cup in 2018 and continental gold in 2019, acknowledged that this event “after the Games is usually more accessible”, but admits that “this year you will have to jump more than 14.60 to have a medal “. “It’s a championship for those athletes who don’t have international medals, from a small country and those who with a medal begin to pay attention to them. It’s a championship in which everyone has access to medals and we all want them. We have to be ready for anything,” he stressed.
In addition, in the summer, there will be the European Championship, which she wants to go to more ambitiously. “I am an Olympic medalist and I can no longer say that I want to be in the final, I want the medals. The European is an opportunity to win gold and say that I have a medal in each championship,” she said.
“I could be super humble and say I’m just competing for fun, but obviously I know what’s up and I’m an Olympic medalist so from here on up. The goal now is to be a medalist in Belgrade and I’ll be happy whatever color I am. I’m close to the 15 meters and if the health and the head accompany sooner or later that jump will come out”, added the one from Ribeira.
“BEFORE I ISOLATED MYSELF A LOT”
On the other hand, he alluded to the fact that there is less pressure now. “Before I used to isolate myself a lot before a tournament, but now I care so little what others say that I do what I want at all times. If I feel like recording a ‘tik tok’ dancing I will record it, if I feel like talking for four hours I will do it with my parents. You have to listen to your body because it is never the same, I let myself go, “he confessed.
Finally, the Galician was asked about the war in Ukraine. “It has never been something that helps to solve a problem, it is the last solution that should be reached, but there is one in Syria, in Israel, in Africa, but since we don’t have them so close and we don’t feel that fear, then it forgets us. There are other wars that are not given visibility,” he lamented.
“The images seen from Ukraine make me lose hope in Humanity. Thank God it hasn’t arrived here yet, but it makes me very sad. I empathize a lot with Ukrainian athletes and I hope it will be solved, but also all the others” , sentenced.