The path of champions, women add 22 medals in weightlifting

Quintana Roo, Mexico – After many sacrifices and efforts, the so-called “weaker sex” is proving the opposite by filling the medal table with three precious metals.

There were long months of training, sweat, sprains and injuries, which sometimes led to discouragement, but the spirit of warriors prevailed to move forward and now savor the sweet taste of triumph, leaving behind the tears of pain, to enjoy the tears of joy.

The Quintana Roo state representative in women’s weightlifting won a total of 22 medals in their debut at the CONADE 2021 National Games, which are being held in Monterrey, Nuevo León, from June 24 to July 30: 4 golds, 8 silvers and 10 bronzes.

The young female weightlifters, which the dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language defines as the Olympic sport of weightlifting, where men and women test their strength and endurance by carrying a large number of kilos deposited in weights or barbells, are demonstrating everything they have learned in training.

And after waiting for several months for the competitions that were postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the moment of truth has arrived. During the first day of the U-15 category competition, Ángeles Daniela Bolio Canto (36 kgs.) won bronze in snatch, bronze in pull-up, bronze in pull-down and bronze in total; while Darly Marely Canto Collí (40 kgs.) won a gold and two silvers; and Fernanda Addai Pool May (40 kgs.), won two bronze medals, all of them from the municipality of José María Morelos, in the Mayan zone of Quintana Roo.

The celebration was not over yet, when it was the turn of the U-17 category. Guadalupe Medina Euan (40 kgs.), from Cozumel, won bronze in snatch, gold in pull-up and silver in total.

Jazmín Alejandra Alamilla Canul (40 kgs.), from Felipe Carrillo Puerto, won silver in snatch, bronze in kick-off and bronze in total. Ximena Fernanda León Pérez (55 kgs.), from Solidaridad, won two golds and a silver.

After the youngest athletes, the Under-23 category began, in which only the total is awarded. Gema Gómez Poot (45 kgs.), from Felipe Carrillo Puerto, won the bronze medal; while in the same category Johana Daniela Estrella Pérez (49 kgs.), from Othón P. Blanco, won the silver.

As the young athletes added medals for Quintana Roo, the joy overwhelmed all of them, but there was still one more to come: at the end of the opening day, Andrea Sak Nik Te Uitzil Chuc, from Cozumel, in the U-15 category (55 kgs.) won two silver medals and one bronze medal.

The closing ceremony was more than satisfactory; never before in the opening of a national competition had so many medals been won. The president of the Commission for Youth and Sports of Quintana Roo (COJUDEQ), Antonio López Pinzón, expressed his satisfaction with the medal harvest in the weightlifting discipline, at the beginning of the team’s participation in the national games.

It was teamwork that shone here for each of the winners, thanks to their courage and in sum, when parents, coaches, discipline and timely governmental support are involved, it yields results such as those observed today. 

With information from Pedro Juárez Mauss

Translated by Miguel Sánchez