The Cubans Serguey Torres and Fernando Dayán Jorge They won the gold medal in C2 1000 meter canoeing and set an Olympic record in Tokyo with a time of 3:24.995.
They were followed in the canal Sea Forest by the chinese Liu Hao and Pengfei Zheng, who arrived clocking 3:25.198, and the Germans Sebastian Brendel and Tim Hecker, with 3:25.615, which took the bronze despite the fact that they had the record in this discipline in their possession.
Torres, 34 years old, and Jorge, 22, achieved a excellent closing in your regatta overtaking the Chinese duo who had been in front until the last 250 meters.
"We as a team worked very hard for an entire year, until the pandemic arrived. Every day the training was hard, and all the time thinking about the gold medal. And that's what came out," Jorge told the press.
The young man dedicated this triumph to his hometown, Cienfuegos, a Cuban province with a strong tradition of regattas, which has almost disappeared in recent decades due to the government's erroneous policies in these sports and the shortcomings in Cuba.
"Right now I don't know what to say. I'm living a dream. The only thing I know is that I am an Olympic champion," Jorge said.
His canoeing partner commented that when you work hard, as they have done in the last five years, you can achieve great things. They demonstrated it by winning this gold that Cuba did not expect and that surprised everyone who was able to see the spectacular closing of the regatta.
"When you work hard for something you can expect a good result. All the rivals that come here have a high level, China, Germany; it was a very strong regatta that we all enjoyed," Torres told the press.
It is the first time that Cuba wins an Olympic gold in canoeing. had been achieved three Olympic silver, but since 2004 Cubans have not been on the podium in this discipline.
Jorge and Torres' medal is the third of its kind for the Cuban delegation that traveled to Tokyo 2020. There was also the one won by Mijain López who became Olympic champion for the fourth time and of Luis Orta, both in Greco-Roman wrestling. The island also has three silver and three bronze medals.
In Rio de Janeiro 2016 Torres and Jorge reached the final in sixth position, but a year later they won their first world silver and have had an excellent competitive cycle prior to these Tokyo Olympics.
“The strategy was to do our regatta. We knew we had a good second half and we could win. We seek to stay in the group and attack at the right moment. We were well trained and it was clear that whoever rowed the best in the last few meters was going to win. And that was us,” Torres said.
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