MADRID, 27 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Alicante rower Javier García achieved victory this Saturday in the European rowing qualifying regatta, which was held in Szeged (Hungary), and has secured Spain’s first ticket for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in this sport.
The athlete from the Torrevieja Rowing Club, who competed in the PR1 M1x men’s individual event reserved for participants without mobility in their legs or trunk, completed the 2,000 meters with a time of 10:07.00, ahead of the Hungarian Zsolt Peto (11:29.08) and from the Czech Tomas Nevecny (12:10.90).
García, the first Spanish rower to get a ticket to Paris, only needed victory to guarantee participation in his first Paralympic event, since he only had one place up for grabs. The other members of the national team, who have not taken part in this competition, will have the last opportunity in the world qualifying regatta to be held in Lucerne (Switzerland) between May 19 and 21.
So far, Spanish Paralympic athletes have achieved 89 places in 11 sports for the Games: 31 in swimming, 24 in wheelchair basketball, 10 in athletics, 10 in table tennis, six in canoeing, two in boccia, two in taekwondo, one in cycling, one in rowing, one in shooting and one in archery.
Spain still has options to participate in 17 of the 22 sports that are part of the competition program and it is expected that the quota will expand in the coming months in these and other modalities, such as triathlon, judo, wheelchair tennis, badminton, wheelchair fencing and weightlifting.