• Chronicle.Craviotto and the K-4 500: world silver and ticket to fulfill Tokyo's dream

There are countries that, throughout history, have shaped their sporting triumphs in specific disciplines. It is the case of Kenya in athletics. Eliud Kipchoge , world marathon record holder, leads a delegation that won 13 medals at the Rio Games, all of them in the tartan. In Tokyo, next summer, the Kenyans will climb back into the drawer in the background tests, but first they must overcome a high obstacle: their own trials. In the national championships of the country it will be decided who goes and who does not attend the Olympic event and the hardness will be even greater than that of the Games themselves.

Something similar happens to Spain with canoeing. In the Szeged World Cup (Hungary) closed yesterday, the country collected seven medals and together with Teresa Portela in the women's K1 200 qualified for the Games up to three ships in the men's category: the K4 500 of Saúl Craviotto, Carlos Arévalo, Marcus Cooper Walz and Rodrigo Germade (silver); the K2 1000 of Paco Cubelos and Iñigo Peña (silver); and the K1 200 by Carlos Garrote (bronze). Make numbers and you will see that there are seven paddlers with tickets for the next Games. The problem - blessed problem, some will think - is that, by the rules of the Olympic Committee (IOC), each country can only send six, so at least one must stay out.

Some component of the K4 - like Craviotto - could double in the K1; Garrote could enter the four-member canoe; New couples could be formed or they could even stay at home. The Olympic places are for the country, they are not nominal, so participants must win the position next year. It will be in a long process that will last the entire month of May 2020 and that will require both the medalists in the recently finished World Cup and the rest of the elite canoeists. First they will fight each other in the European May 6 and 7 and then in the Duisburg World Cup from May 21 to 24. Then it will be the Federation that must make the hard decision and choose the best six.

«I have already entered three Olympics, I am 34 years old, I will arrive with 35 and young people climb strong ... I do not want to announce my retirement but it smells like it may be my last Olympiad and I would like to close a brilliant sports career there» Summarized Craviotto, the second Spanish athlete with the most Olympic medals (four), just one of David Cal , who added: «I feel very proud of my three teammates. The word that defines this team is illusion, much illusion ». "Going to the Games is the illusion of my life," said his partner Arévalo, the K4 500 military, who in just four months resolved the doubts that were included. «Now I feel anger released and want to celebrate it».

Despite the level of other countries, such as Germany, which took the gold in the crucial K4 500, Spain was the only country that managed to qualify for three kayaks and, therefore, the only one that will have to choose between its paddlers before Tokyo

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CanoeingCraviotto and the K-4 500: world silver and ticket to fulfill Tokyo's dream