Three years ago, Adriana Cerezo was crowned European taekwondo champion, at minus 49 kilograms, with only 17 years. Then, during an interview with Marka, he already said that he wanted to”make history”. Soon after, he was competing in the previous Olympic Games, where he won a place for Tokyo 2020. Silver was suspended at the games It gave Spain its first medal. Three years later, The native of Madrid is facing the last stretch towards the Paris Games with the Olympic gold medal between her eyebrows, but before that she has an important appointment. This Thursday he is looking for his second continental crown as leader of the national expedition.
“The goal is the same as always, the gold medal. Let’s go for everything”, He says ambitiously. From 2017 to the present, Cerezo has played 110 tournaments in which he has achieved 97 medals. Or what is the same, he climbed to the podium in 88% of them. At 77 it was gold, at 11 silver and 9 bronze. Looking at her statistics, no one is surprised that she is among the candidates for the European and Olympic podium.
Do you expect European silver and gold in Paris? “Man, I’d be a fool if I didn’t, but since it’s not a case and you can get gold in both, well Let’s go get both of them. If I had a contract I would put it. I’m not going to lie, things are as they are, ” he says with a smile. His main rival is Turkish Merv densel, European champion in 2022 and world champion last year. Cerezo won gold at the 2023 European games.
The cherry tree, which Combining taekwondo with a career in criminology, Nothing has changed about his preparation in Hancock by order of Jesus Sands. We keep training, we dream of being European champions, world champions, medals in all the events we have and we will get them, and in the end, the level rises”.
European testing before the games
Cerezo is not the only Olympian who has a medal option in Europe. He also competes Adri ocean Vicente (-58 kg, Who will play his second Olympic event this summer and is ranked second in the world rankings. The native of Madrid, who was the champion of the continent at -54 kg, already has a European silver and bronze at -58, in addition to the announcement Champion of the European games last year.
Javier B. ochrez-Polo (-68 kg, Who will also play his second Games in Paris and who took the continental bronze medal in 2021 and silver in 2022, He was also the champion of the European games in Krakow last year.
Y Cecilia Castro (-67 kg, Who will make his debut at an Olympic event after obtaining the ticket at the pre-Olympic stage in Bulgaria, You know what it’s like to win the continental gold medal. She was the 2022 champion in Manchester And silver at the 2023 European games. He has two European bronzes. In total, 16 Spaniards will compete in Belgrade.
European Para-Taekwondo
European Paralympic taekwondo is also being held in Belgrade , where four Spaniards will participate in it: Dalia Santiago (K 44, + 65 kg), who this summer will be the first Spaniard in history to compete at the Paralympic Games in taekwondo; Joel Martyn (K-44 , -58 KG), who will also participate in his first matches; Rashid Al Hayani (K-44 , -58 kg) and Gabriel Amado (44k , -70kg).
