José Miguel Pérez: "When I reached the finish line I felt an immense joy and also a lot of tranquility"

When José Miguel Pérez, a triathlete from Cuenca, crossed the finish line last Sunday after finishing 26th in the Madrid World Cup event, he knelt on the ground and began to cry with emotion. And it was no wonder, as he had achieved his dream: to participate in the Olympics From London. It's a goal that can be summed up in one sentence, but to tell how it was achieved would require at least a book full of stories of sacrifice, training, suffering, injuries, marathon journeys and, above all, a lot of willpower to keep fighting for the dream that one has worked on all their life.

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.

As for the race, José Miguel Pérez admits that nerves got the better of him in the first lap of swimming: “I went out very nervous to compete and it was hard for me to get into the race, I didn't feel my way until the second lap.” Then, in the stretch in bikeThe group he was riding in managed to close the gap with the group of Ivan Raña, his main rival to qualify for the Olympic Games “in the cycling sector I did very well, now more relaxed because the advantage I had had been neutralized.

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 extended a hand to his teammates, Javier Gómez Noya and Mario Mola “to help them if they need it and to win a medal.” However, his intention is not to be a domestique at the Games because his goal is “to give my best.”

Source: vocesdecuenca.com