Colombian diving team overcame earthquake and traveled to World Championships
The earthquake that struck Colombia on August 10 took many lives and also shattered the dreams and projects of thousands of people. Making them a reality will now take quite some time. However, the earthquake failed to take away the aspirations of the members of the Colombian junior diving team that was preparing to participate in the World Diving Championships in Rijeka, Croatia, which begins next Friday.
Six of its eleven members are from Valle del Cauca, one of the departments most affected by the earthquake. The athletes felt their goal of traveling to Europe sinking because the 7.4-magnitude earthquake not only brought down houses and buildings in Cali. It also seriously damaged the pools at the Hernando Botero O’Byrne complex, where the divers were training.
After identifying the material damage that affected the place where the divers were preparing in Cali, it became necessary to establish that they themselves had not been affected by the earthquake, which occurred eight days before the day the trip to Croatia was scheduled, this Tuesday, August 18.
The list of the eleven swimmers who would travel had been prepared several weeks earlier. They are Gabriela Rusinque, Camilo Betancur, Nicolas Londono, Maria Angel Giraldo, Esteban Gonzalez, Luciana Pinedo, Mariana Vasquez, Manuel Jimenez, Juan Manuel Lopez, Santiago Solorzano and Juliana Giron. Six are from the Valle League, three from Antioquia, one from Bogota and one from Risaralda.
Divers traveled to Croatia this Tuesday
Without the divers from the Valle del Cauca League, the team would be reduced to less than half. For this reason, the coaching staff, the Colombian Swimming Federation and the athletes’ parents decided to move the Valle del Cauca delegation to Medellin. Only in this way could participation in the World Championships in Croatia be saved.
In addition, everything achieved in the qualification process for that event could not be lost, which took place during the past National Interleague Championship, held in the city of Pereira. There, the athletes obtained the results that allowed them to join the national preselection.
Moving from Cali to Medellin “was not easy,” said coach Oscar Urrea, quoted by the Antioquia newspaper El Colombiano. But in that city they were able to resume their training in the water and, most importantly, also begin their mental recovery.
“While the young athletes polished their executions from the platform, in their minds echoed the distant reality of their homes, where their families remain helping those affected and rebuilding Cali from its ashes,” the same outlet described.
Having given the earthquake the slip, the eleven young athletes were finally able to travel this Tuesday to Croatia, where the World Championships are scheduled to begin next Friday, August 21, and end a week later.
“We believe that with the Valle del Cauca athlete Luciana Pinedo we could fight for a medal,” coach Urrea told the Antioquia outlet. “Although we will face unknown rivals aged 14 and 15, Luciana’s marks at the Nationals make us dream big. The same is true of the Antioquia athletes Nicolas Londono and Esteban Gonzalez, the Bogota athlete Gabriela Rusinque and Camilo Betancur, from Risaralda. They all recorded high-level marks.”