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How long is the joy of youth, the joy that ignores, that does not fear?

The Spanish team is today a group of athletes who, in order to reach the elite, have had to face the question, crash into it and find out later that athletics - life - is that: recover the joy when something has already failed and they grip the fears Ana Peleteiro , Fernando Carro , Javier Cienfuegos ... many were promises and years, injuries and failures later, finally opt for a medal in the World Cup, but nobody exemplifies that process as the jumper Eusebio Cáceres .

At 21, in 2013, Cáceres was already fourth in a World Cup, the second best Spanish in history behind Yago Lamela , the country's hope in its low hours.

But suddenly...

«I broke the ischium up to seven times, among other things. In the last five years I barely had a few months of training without discomfort and in the end that disrupted everything. I never wanted to quit, but I doubted a lot. I thought that perhaps as a young man it was not so good, that everything was luck, ”says Cáceres that now, at 28, he lives his moment, maturity, the expected maturity.

It may not be as bright as it was supposed to be, but it is, it is not little. Yesterday, for the second time in his life, he qualified for the final of a World Cup and did it, also, easily: he exceeded eight meters in his second attempt (8.01 meters) and today (17.45 hours, TDP) he will look for the great jump, that which ensures that it is on his legs, for an amazing podium. Gold is reserved for the Cuban Juan Miguel Echevarría , who even threatens the world record of Mike Powell (8.95 meters), but the rest of the positions of honor are unknown.

"Changes, changes, changes"

A metal would be the ideal reward for the insistence of Cáceres, which has left sequels. In recent years, the pains robbed him of the naturalness with which he jumped before and even the technique. As he admits, he was a better jumper when he started than now.

«Each injury forced me to make changes in my technique. Changes, changes, changes. And in the end there was a moment that I no longer knew what I was doing. Now I find myself very fast, more than ever, although in the whip I am still insecure. In the table you see: either I do null or I leave enough. I want to jump like when I was a child, say, as in the 2013 World Cup, naturally, without having to think, ”analyzes the jumper who in recent years left his native Onil to Madrid, was put in the hands of coach Juan Carlos Álvarez and tried many, many things.

In the end, in recent times, he discovered that he needs to go in contradirection. For example, most jumpers lift very light weights to maintain flexibility and the opposite is good for them, to gain a lot of weight, like a pitcher, to be very strong. For example, most athletes give themselves massages, physiotherapy, to relax the musculature and he is doing quite the opposite, being tense, very tense, to be able to get fired.

How long is the joy of youth, the joy you do not fear?

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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