With a luxury roster, Colombia was crowned champion of the Grand Prix for Athletics that took place in Dubai from 21 to 24 March. The delegation, composed of seven women and nine men, won a total of 25 medals, divided as follows: 12 gold, eight silver and five bronze. The event brought together 446 representatives from 43 countries. The Colombian Paralympic Committee won 60% of the total medal.
The 16 national representatives competed in 32 competitions and traveled to the United Arab Emirates with the mission of demonstrating their skills, both in the field and in the track tests and to revalidate the great Colombian athletics performance at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
An example of this, is the case of Yesenia Restrepo, the disco pitcher, won the gold medal in the F11 competition, with a distance of 33.75, her best mark since the last Paralympic Games, where she won the bronze dam in the same event. After winning the gold medal, the athlete Paisa said, “I just got out of my record test, I am satisfied with the results, it is a motivation for our preparation for Paris 2024″.
Another athlete who climbed to the top of the podium was the javelin thrower, Mauricio Valencia. The Paralympic champion of Rio 2016 and silver in Tokyo 2020, won in this adapted athletics Grand Prix, the gold in the F34 event, “This is hard work, God knows what we work. This gold is an achievement for Paralympic sport, for me, for my family and for all those who accompanied me in this process,” he said after stepping off the podium.
The fifth gold medal of the Colombian delegation was won by Erica Castaño, in the F55 album release test. There, the athlete Paisa obtained a throwing distance of 22.19, managing to overcome her own mark. Erica referred to her triumph like this: “I just won a gold medal for the country in the album release, I felt very good in the test, very comfortable, everything could be done in the best possible way. We are at our best in what is our overall preparation, the results are being seen.”
As for the long jump, Colombians Omar Acosta and José Gregorio Lemos placed first and third during this test, respectively. Acosta with a jump of 5.60 was first, also taking the national record, while Lemos was third with a distance of 6.12.
Another discipline in which the Colombian athletes shone was in the 200 meters T35. During this competition, Yamil Acosta won the silver, while Julián Acosta climbed to the third place in the ranking. Meanwhile, in the 400 meters T12, Buinder Bermudez won the silver dam in men and Mayerli Buitrago was third, in the women's branch.
According to information from the Ministry of Sport for the participation of the Colombian delegation, the national government invested a sum of 1,599 million pesos. In the United Arab Emirates, athletes, Colombians broke world records. The first to do so was Karen Palomeque in the 400 meters T37 with a time of 01:00 .44 seconds. Meanwhile, José Lemos did it in the throw of the F38 javelin with a distance of 60.58 meters.
The Colombian national team returns to the country with two objectives achieved: to confirm and improve brands. Now, the delegation has its sights set on what will be the Parapan American Games in Santiago 2023 and the Paralympic Games in Paris 2024.
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