Quique Llopis and the horrifying fall that he does not remember: "What happened?"

Quique Llopis

jumped a fence, two, three... The fourth time came the stumble, a slight technical error, millimeter, perhaps caused by the impetus of the one who gazes at glory a few meters away, from a bad start that he was trying to overcome.

The first continental medal for someone who until he was 14 years old only played soccer in his native Gandía.

Already stumbled, in the fifth and last obstacle misfortune occurred, a spectacular fall that left the Spaniard lying on the tartan of the Ataköy Spor Salonu in Istanbul like a knocked out boxer, while his rivals, oblivious to the drama, celebrated a few meters away, not without controversy. (The winner,

, publicly apologized.)

"What happened?".

When he regained consciousness, half a minute after the brutal blow to the head, Quique did not remember anything about the final of the 60 meter hurdles of the European Indoor Championships that he had just played.

"He said that his head and ear hurt a lot, but he responded well from the beginning to urgent questions in these cases," recalls

, the physiotherapist and osteopath of the Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEF), the man who, with his thumbs up, was the first to calm the anguish of family members, colleagues and fans while the athlete was transferred on a stretcher with a neck brace.

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The great scare of Quique Llopis: removed on a stretcher after a brutal fall in the final of the 60 m hurdles

• Drafting: CARLOS TORO

The great scare of Quique Llopis: removed on a stretcher after a brutal fall in the final of the 60 m hurdles

It was not only the image of Llopis, but also the medical protocol that, in the blink of an eye, covered the scene with sheets while the athlete remained on the ground without moving and with a completely lost look, making one fear the worst.

"I ran downstairs. When I accessed the track, the PAS protocol (Protect - Alert - Help) had already been launched. The placement of blankets with the function of avoiding seeing inappropriate images, it is true, generates a lot of concern and anguish for everyone those people who are present. They also make us fear a serious injury. Because you don't know what you're going to find," says Cos, who recently landed in Madrid with the rest of the Spanish delegation, which is brought from Turkey on gold for

in the 800 meters and silver for

in the 3,000, but, above all, the relief of the news that comes today about the state of Llopis: he has already been discharged and this Tuesday he will fly back to Spain.

"It was a tremendous scare. Fortunately, little by little we were verifying that Quique was responding, although stunned by the head trauma and the concussion, to all the initial tests. From the first he was concerned about the intense headache and in the Right ear The bleeding that appeared in this ear and the strong head trauma with the loss of consciousness for a few seconds make it necessary to evacuate to the emergency room as quickly as possible to carry out tests and rule out craniocerebral and cervical spine injuries. , is usually a good symptom, because it means that it is draining and minimizes the risk of increased internal pressure," says the physiotherapist who, admits, in 33 years with the national athletics team,He never saw a fall as spectacular and dangerous as that of the Valencian hurdler.

Accompanied by his father and his coach

, and

, head of the Federation's medical services, Quique was rushed to a hospital in Istanbul.

He had previously been revived on the same track, where he was dramatically lying on his back, with the medal with which he always runs between his teeth.

After the CT and the different tests, any fracture at the cranial level, cervical spine or extremities was ruled out.

The diagnosis is concussive head injury.

At night, the young athlete, whose career so far has been marked by bad luck and injuries, sent a reassuring message from his hospital bed through the Spanish Federation's social networks: "Everything is fine, everything has gone Everything is fine. Now, to recover and that's it".

In addition, in Quique's favor is his youth (he turned 22 in October) and his physical strength.

"You have to be prudent. Now you should be quiet for three weeks and then, little by little, start to reactivate, first with work on a bicycle, without impact," adds Cos.

"As in traffic accidents that cause a whiplash, the evolution of the sequelae that can be produced depends a lot on each patient. The instability, dizziness and/or chronic pain resulting from these injuries can disappear in a few days, or take weeks or months. You have to be prudent," he concludes.

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