Cycling, thanks to the golden legs of Agua Marina Espínola in the women’s individual time trial, brought this Monday the second gold medal for Paraguay in the XII South American Games that take place in Asunción, the capital of regional sports these days.
The cyclist Agua Marina Espínola, Olympic representative of Paraguay in the last Tokyo Olympic Games, won first place in her specialty with a time of 35:27.18 minutes, despite not being among the favorites for the throne in these Odesur ASU 2022 Games.
The 26-year-old athlete surpassed by almost a minute the Pan American medalist and monarch of her country, the Colombian Lina Hernández (36: 24.33); while the Venezuelan Lilibeth Chacón took third place and therefore the bronze medal, with a record of 36:33.99.
“It is a day that I will not forget in my career. I am proud to have given my country this first gold medal in cycling. There were very good runners, but I was able to prevail after having trained a lot, both physically and mentally”, said the new monarch.
Paraguay in the history of its previous 11 presentations in this competition, managed to accumulate 19 gold medals, 38 silver and 58 bronze, leaving a total of 115 medals. Four years ago, in the edition of Cochabamba, Bolivia, he won 30 medals and the purpose for this event is 50.
For this, it has a historical representation, with 574 athletes. With the Agua Marina medal, Espínola won her second gold medal at these Asunción Games and her eighth in general, with four silver medals and two bronze pendants.