THE Queen Letizia attended this Friday the wheelchair basketball match between the Spanish men’s team and Australiain what was his first sporting event of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games since his arrival in the French capital.
THE Queen Letizia was in the stands of the Bercy Arena in Paris with the president of the Spanish Paralympic Committee, Miguel Carballedaand the Minister of National Education, Vocational Training and Sports, Pillar Joy.
Throughout the day, the Queen is also expected to attend the boccia match she will play. Amagoia Arrieta against the French Aurélie Aubert and will then go to La Défense Arena to support the Spanish swimmers in the final of the afternoon session. Also in Paris are the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albaresand the President of the CSD, José Manuel Rodriguez Uribes. The Spanish delegation now has five medals.
This Friday, the cyclist from Cordoba Alfonso Cabello won the fifth medal for the Spanish delegation present at the Paralympic Games in Paris, taking bronze in the C4-C5 kilometer time trial, while the Aragonese Eduardo Santas finished fourth in the 3,000m pursuit C3 class of track cycling.
The Andalusian track cyclist, in the C5 class and gold medallist in this event at London 2012 and Tokyo 2020 and bronze at Rio de Janeiro 2016, demonstrated, despite a complicated preparation, that he was one of the candidates for the podium and reaffirmed it. this afternoon at the Vélodrome in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. He had a chance to win a bigger prize, but the Briton Blaine Hant managed a superb finish to snatch it in the last 250 meters.
The Andalusian knew that defending the gold from three years ago was going to be difficult. “A year and a half ago, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to get back on the bike,” he reminded the media after winning a bronze medal that he values very highly and that keeps him among the best for the fourth consecutive Paralympic Games.
In addition, in the qualifying round, which gave tickets to the six fastest for the final, the Australian Korey Boddington, current vice-world champion in the C4 class, showed that he seemed to be above the others with a time of 1:01.190 and a new Paralympic record.
The double Spanish Paralympic champion finished third with a time of 1:02.050, and reserving some energy for the final, close to the British Hant, who surpassed him by 45 thousandths, and with an optimal distance on one of his historic rivals, also the British Jody Cundy, at more than three tenths.
The Spaniard had to start third from the last in the final and was eagerly awaiting Cundy’s time. He was unable to improve his time from the previous hours, which Cabello did, with 1:01.969, very close to his world record from three years ago at the Izu velodrome (1:01.557), he at least got the bronze medal specifying that. he had that little extra that he had noticed.
He had to wait for what Hunt did mainly, which sometimes made him dream of a better prize, but the Briton put in an excellent last lap and won silver by almost two tenths (1:01.776). Boddington, despite a slight fall at the end, managed to inherit the Andalusian throne in the event (1:01.650).
