Only one Olympic medal is missing in his career. He was fourth for two hundredths in the London 2012 Games, fifth in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 and sixth in Rio 2016. And that's why he will try again. At 37, Teresa Portela got the qualification for her sixth Games and thus became a record holder: no other Spaniard surpassed the five participants, the tennis player Arantxa Sánchez Vicario , the swimmer María Peláez , the shooter Pilar Fernández and the skier are left behind María José Rienda .
At the Szeged Canoeing World Championship in Hungary, the veteran Palista on Saturday hung the bronze in the K1 200, her fifteenth World Cup medal, and confirmed a ticket she already had reserved. This same year he had finished second in the Duisburg World Cup and had noticed a remarkable form.
This Saturday his celebration was paradoxical: when he reached the finish line, Portela already started the celebration, although for several minutes he was awarded fourth place for a few thousandths. The championship granted a ticket for Tokyo 2020 to the top five classifieds and, although he had missed the medal because of a somewhat delayed start, the joy surpassed him. When he was announced in the locker room that he was finally awarded the bronze aequo next to the Danish Emma Aastrand Jorgensen unleashed the jarana. Still with the shovel in his hand, he ran to hug Naira, his five-year-old daughter, and David Mascató , her husband, a former canoeist, runner-up in the world of C2 1000 in 2001.
The second classified, the Polish Marta Walczykiewicz , also, ended with only one thousandth advantage over Portela, good omen before the Olympic event. As expected, the gold in the test went to New Zealand's Lisa Carrington , champion of everything for almost a decade, and always with a surplus advantage over her adversaries.
The Olympic places are not nominal, they are granted to the countries, but it is impossible for any other Spaniard to take away the honor from Portela. His was the first achieved in this Szeged World Cup, although only 10 minutes came the second. Carlos Garrote , world champion of the same distance, the K1 200, last year, finished this time third and also assured his presence in the next Games. The cross of the day was Roi Rodriguez who finished eighth in the K1 1000 and was left without an Olympic place.
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