It happened last Sunday, a decision of those that put anyone on the tightrope, the temptation of success in front of your nose, especially when the protagonist is still not used (yet) to collecting triumphs.

Sportsmanship won, which does not always happen, and in the end,

Diego Méntrida's gesture was

worth much more than the lost bronze.

The Madrilenian headed the last couple of laps before entering the finish line, exhausted in the race in pursuit of his rival without a prize, already resigned to that fourth place that is always so bitter in sport.

More if the photo of the podium is unique, because a legend awaited at the top, none other than

Javi Gómez Noya

, who signed up for the Santander Triathlon, Olympic distance, given the shortage of tests in this cursed year of the Covid.

When, suddenly, the British

James Teagle

, who was third, took the wrong way before the very eyes of Diego.

There was the glory for the very young triathlete of the

Ecosport de Alcobendas

, just a few meters away.

It would have been enough for him to follow the inertia of his strides.

He could perfectly have been clueless.

Seeing how he was wrong, I unconsciously stopped myself.

He deserved it".

Sportsmanship to ambition won by a landslide, and Diego let the Englishman retrace his steps and enter third.

More merit if when you have to decide the heart pumps more than 150 beats.

«He must not have seen the detour to the finish line.

Or they did not signal it well.

I don't know, the fact is that he deserved it », Diego details, pure honesty:« I would do it again ».

"It is the most fair thing"

For a 21-year-old boy, stretching himself in the elite of the national triathlon but aware of how harsh this world is at a professional level, that "either you are a Gómez Noya or living from this is complicated", who studies, just in case,

a double degree at the Rey Juan Carlos University

(Physiotherapy and Sports Sciences) and who trains - "here it is not worth one session a day" - robbing hours of sleep, giving up a podium is not trivial.

"It came out like that, it's the fairest thing," he insists, although he also acknowledges "the pain" of that image that will never be, of him in third place in the drawer, behind

Kevin Tarek Viñuela

, a real reference, and of nothing less than "the best in history."

More pain than the 300 euros of prize that he lost was to give up a photograph to hang in the living room.

Méntrida, with Gómez Noya, before the test.

When everyone was aware of the gesture, already at the finish line, the applause and recognition came for the boy, who has only been dedicated to triathlon for a few years - he was selected for the European duathlon, last March -, as he discovered it at the back from a few months living in Canada, "where there is a very great sports culture."

His rival, of course, who he hopes to meet in a few weeks in Bilbao, on his long-distance debut in the Spanish Championship, also surrendered to his decision.

"

He came up to me and thanked me

, in English", reveals and details what a titanic struggle had been like for almost two hours of agony.

«I came out of the water third, leading the group that was already chasing the two escapees.

On the bike [without drafting despite being an Olympian, anti-coronavirus rules], I kept the type and in the race, which is what I do best, James and I came all the time together, attacking each other, "he says.

"In the last lap

I was four or five seconds

", admits, until the fatal error of the English team of the Alusigma team, without penalty for the fair play of his rival.

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