• Olympic The podium, beyond Time, of triathlete doctor Susana
  • Susana Rodríguez The story of overcoming the Galician paratriathlete and doctor who has just been on the cover of 'Time' magazine

With tears of helplessness. This is how Susana Rodríguez finished in the final of the World Series held in Pontevedra after seeing how the gold escaped her hands due to a harsh sanction. She competed on home soil and was the favorite to climb to the top of the podium and to proclaim herself world champion for the fifth consecutive year. However, he had to settle for second place. "It is a shame and a sadness that there are officials measuring the races who do not know what they have to do and it is a shame that the World Triathlon, which boasts so much of equality, puts a sanction on you for blocking some guys who had somewhere to go. It's worth learning and that it doesn't happen to us again," said the triathlete, completely broken.

The Vigo was shown a yellow card in the cycling section, specifically in the second round, as she was allegedly obstructing the passage of a male tandem. The athlete herself explained at the finish line what had happened: "In the Paralympic triathlon, on the bike you can not go to the wheel, we have to drive on the right and overtake on the left. In the second round some guys came with a tandem, who are much stronger than us, they overtook us in a few seconds and they did it on the right because they wanted to, because there was room on both sides, but the official judge gave us a yellow card, "she confessed to the newspaper Marca.

From the sanction, the test only got worse for Susana Rodríguez. With that warning, both she and her guide had to stop a minute in the penalty box, but the organization was not up to the task. "The officer who was in charge of measuring time and writing down your number was leaning on the table. Sara, my guide, hit the table three or four times, but the lady, who must not know her work, told us to leave that we had to make the stop in the race. I know it's not like that because I've been competing for a long time. We lost 40 seconds and from there I didn't get back into the race," lamented the athlete.

A fatal mistake

She herself commented that after the incident it was difficult for her to concentrate again, and that she has to be very attentive to her guide since any mistake can be fatal. "It's a shame that something like this happens in a world championship," said the Vigo. After this, the Spanish Triathlon Federation filed a claim with the World Triathlon, but the body ended up accepting the decision.

The Vigo maintained the second place, crossing 32 seconds from the Italian Francesca Tarantello. This classification does not affect him too much, since he has secured the place for Paris 2024.

Despite her anger, and taking into account what she had experienced during the test, Susana wanted to have a gesture of gratitude for the support that the people of Pontevedra had shown her, both during the competition and in the previous days. "I feel happy to have managed to create over the years this desire to see paratriathlon, that is the most important thing today," he acknowledged.

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