José Miguel Pérez: "When I reached the finish line I felt an immense joy and also a lot of tranquility"
When the Cuenca triathlete José Miguel Pérez crossed the finish line last Sunday after placing twenty-sixth in the Madrid World Cup event, he knelt on the ground and began to cry emotionally. And it was no wonder, because he had achieved his dream, participating in the London Olympic Games. It is a goal that can be summarized in one sentence, but to tell how it was achieved it would take at least a book full of stories of sacrifice, training, suffering, injuries, marathon trips and, above all, a lot of willpower. to move forward fighting for the dream on which we have worked all our lives.
For this reason, José Miguel Pérez's feeling when he crossed that finish line was “like a birth. When I arrived I felt immense joy for everything I have suffered and also a lot of peace because things turned out well.” And the thing is that recent times have been “a very hard stage in my life, very full of competitions and trips,” and it is something that he has noticed both physically and emotionally.
En cuanto a la carrera, José Miguel Pérez reconoce que los nervios le pasaron factura en la primera vuelta de natación “salí muy nervioso a competir y me costó entrar en carrera, hasta la segunda vuelta no me entoné”. Luego, en el tramo en bike, el grupo en el que marchaba consiguió neutralizar la diferencia con el de Iván Raña, su principal rival para clasificarse para los Juegos Olímpicos “en el sector de bicicleta fui muy bien, ya más tranquilo porque la ventaja que tenía se había neutralizado”.
The support is noticeable
It was during the foot race that the man from Cuenca really felt “all the support” of the countrymen who came to Madrid to cheer on him. “When I left Iván Raña behind, my legs felt very good, and I thought I could finish close to 20th place,” but once Raña had already fallen behind, José Miguel Pérez's legs and head began to fail, because “It was noticed that with so much travel he was lacking in training.”
In this third lap of the 2,5 kilometer route through the Casa de Campo in Madrid is when the Cuenca fans played their role, since "probably if it had not been for those shouts of encouragement I would not have been able to qualify." And at that moment José Miguel Pérez was “on the tightrope”, since the Portuguese Joan Pereira was cutting more and more time and if he overtook him he would not go to the Games. “I finally pulled myself together and was even able to overtake someone else.”
Preparation for the Games
Now, with his goal achieved, the one from Cuenca is going to take “a mini vacation with a lower training pace” before beginning his preparation for the Olympics. In fact, the only event in which José Miguel Pérez is going to compete is in the World Cup in Austria. Regarding his role in the London Olympic Games, Pérez knows that he is going to go “to enjoy.”
For now, he has already reached out to his teammates, Javier Gómez Noya and Mario Mola “to help them if they need it and get a medal.” Of course, in principle his intention is not going to be to go gregarious to the Games because his objective is to “give the best of myself.”
Source: vocesdecuenca.com
