PARIS, 3 Sep. (by EUROPA PRESS special correspondent Ramón Chamorro) –
Spanish swimmer Nuria Marquès was delighted with her silver medal in the 100m backstroke S9 at the Paris Paralympic Games on Tuesday, “one of the best results” she could have obtained in a race that was “very difficult” and where she celebrated above all having finished “very well”.
“It went great, I think it’s one of the best results I could have expected from this event. A year ago, these two rivals, against whom I competed for medals, stood in my way and it was very difficult,” said Marquès after the event.
The Catalan knew that there was a “chance” of a podium finish. “But they are girls who have had very good times during the season, they were over 1:08 and the truth is that it was complicated because I had that 1:08 but it was a long time ago, so I knew it would be a very difficult fight,” she said.
“I couldn’t be happier. On Monday I swam the relay with my team and I also swam the 100m backstroke and the sensations were a bit strange, I suppose it was the tension because it wasn’t something I had really planned and I had to learn to manage it. And I think that this afternoon I was much calmer, I think I was able to learn that, to leave those nerves and that tension of the day before behind and thanks a little to that I was much calmer,” she added.
The Spaniard said that she started the final “very well.” “I started very strongly and I was able to finish the last few meters very well, which I think is what I take away most from this. And I’m very happy to have my whole family here too,” she stressed.
“In the end, my rivals were going to be very strong and I knew that either I fought with everything or the battle was not won. So, as in almost all international competitions and in all the Games, in the end it always comes down to hundredths or tenths. It has happened to me in a lot of events and from these experiences I know that you should never give up the event even if they are a metre, half a metre or a few centimetres ahead of you; in the end a nail can be the difference between gold or bronze. I fought until the end,” she stressed.
Nuria Marquès insisted that it was “difficult” and for this reason she was not “in the least confident” that she would get “one medal or another”. “We were four very strong swimmers because Hanna (Aspden) was the Paralympic champion in Tokyo and this time she finished sixth. It was about keeping a cool head, above all not letting the nerves affect it too much and finishing it off to the death until the end” she concluded.