PARIS, Aug. 29 (by EUROPA PRESS special correspondent Ramón Chamorro) –
The Paris Paralympic Games will officially kick off their sporting journey on Thursday and Spain hopes to add its first successes, with options in the swimming pool, which is usually a great breeding ground for metals, the velodrome and taekwondo, on a day when the two wheelchair basketball teams will also make their debut.
Swimming will begin at the Paris La Défense Arena, the sport that is usually the main driver of the Spanish medal table and which will put a good number of swimmers into contention, including Aragonese Teresa Perales, who will begin her journey in search of increasing her list of 27 medals in the 100m backstroke S2.
Alongside the Zaragoza native, other important players will make their debut, such as Miguel Luque, who will swim directly in the final of his favourite event, the 50 breaststroke SB3, where he has won a medal in all his participations since Sydney 2000, Toni Ponce (200 freestyle S5) and Nuria Marquès (400 medley S9).
In addition, María Delgado, Ariadna Edo and Marian Polo (100 butterfly S13), Jacobo Garrido (400 freestyle S9), Beatriz Lérida (400 medley S9), Mikel Erdozain (100 backstroke S2), Eva Coronado (100 butterfly S14), David Levecq (50 freestyle S10), Enrique Alhambra and Juan Ferrón (100 butterfly S13), and Luis Huerta (200 freestyle S5) will compete. In addition, in the afternoon, Miguel Angel Navarro (100 backstroke S1) and Vicente Gil (50 breaststroke SB3) will swim in the direct final.
Another point of attention will be the Velodrome Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines where the track events will begin with Valencian Ricardo Ten looking to fight for the medals in the three-kilometre individual pursuit event in the C1 class.
In addition, the Grand Palais will be the venue for the Olympic Games debut of Catalan taekwondo player Joel Martín, who will face Niger’s representative Jabirou Ide Oumarou in the round of 16, while the table tennis doubles will begin with Miguel Ángel Toledo and Iker Sastre, runners-up in the 2022 world championships in the MD4 class, Jordi Morales and Álvaro Valera, current world and Paralympic bronze medallists in the MD14 class, Jorge Cardona and Ander Cepas, top seeds in the MD18 class, where José Manuel Ruiz, who will start his historic eighth Games, and Alejandro Díaz, and Francisco Javier López and Roberto Eder Rodríguez in MD8, will also compete.
Spain will also be competing in the first day of competition in archery with Fernando Galé, and in boccia with Sara Aller and Vasile Agache in their individual competitions, while its two teams present in the French capital, the wheelchair basketball teams, will be competing.
Both will have a very difficult debut, as the men’s team, current European runner-up and silver medallist in Rio 2016, will face the all-powerful United States, current Paralympic and world champion and winner in the semi-finals of Tokyo 2020 and in the final of the Brazilian event, and the women’s team will debut against the powerful Great Britain, current European runner-up.