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«Even if you don't believe it, then the Tokyo 2020 Games I retire. Sure sure. I have already asked that at the end of 2020 they do not renew my license », announces Jesús Ángel García Bragado and, of course, who will believe it? Three years ago, at the Rio 2016 Games, his seventh Olympic participation, a Spanish record, already assured that he was leaving, he received several tributes, and here he continues, at age 49, at the reception of the Ezdan Hotel in Doha, wider than long after finishing eighth in the early hours of Sunday in the 50 kilometers march of the World Cup . The coach José Peiró informed him that, to enter the Olympic team, he would need to finish in the top 12, and he gave himself a finalist position. The 1993 world champion and runner-up in 1997, 2001 and 2009 continues. With 50 years he will compete in Tokyo.

«I left very reserved because we started with the very high humidity, but the wind turned sharply, the humidity dropped and it was very noticeable. There I could squeeze, go forward, and in the end I was lucky because I won the winner, the Japanese Yusuke Suzuki , and following his rhythm I won some more positions. The truth is that the conditions were more or less what I expected. I had prepared a lot for this extreme test, ”says García Bragado, who, of marble as it is, went further in preparing for the exaggerated heat of Qatar. Like the rest of the marchers, he made concentrations in the same Doha, at the base of the Air Force in Torrejón de Ardoz and in a temperature chamber in the CAR of Sant Cugat, but to that he added other sufferings: « For several weeks I It gave hot water baths, at 40 degrees . I started with little time, about five minutes, and finished with 35 and 40 minutes. It was the best thing to accustom my body to the heat, to the sweating ».

«Now I think of Tokyo. I will have to work hard, but I would sign now to repeat the result of this World Cup. An Olympic diploma would be a farewell rather than dignified, although simply competing will already be magnificent »points out the marcher, who after leaving politics - was a councilor of the Popular Party in Sant Adrià del Besós - is focused on his podiatry career and a project with A biotechnology company . «That is my future after the Tokyo Games, the bibs and the competition are over. I have already begun the transition to be a coach. This year I took several kids at the El Prat club and now I have an offer to join a group with great athletes. So I will continue to be linked to athletics, ”he recalls, but, of course, who will believe it?

Three decades in the elite.

Drop down

Since his debut in 1993, García Bragado has finished in the top eight in two Games (2004 and 2008), seven World Cups and five Europeans. Only the 2017 World Cup in London was lost.

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