Pedro Pablo Pichardo affirmed that the triple jump world champion title he won “is from Portugal”, assuming it himself, in Eugene, in the United States, excited to get a medal that he lacked.
“This medal belongs to Portugal,” said the now world champion this Saturday, after dominating the triple competition, with 17.95, three centimeters short of his national record, which earned him the Olympic title in Tokyo 2002.
The 29-year-old Benfica athlete admitted feeling “great emotion” for having achieved “a title that was in debt”, dedicating the victory to his family and also to the country that welcomed and naturalized him, on November 13, 2019 2017.
“I dedicate the victory to my father [ e treinador, Jorge Pichardo]to the family, the club and the country, Portugal, which [meu] it gave the opportunity to pursue a career at the highest level, but also to the Chambers of Setúbal and Palmela and to Pinhal Novo. To all my team, to the national team and to all of Portugal, I thank you very much”, said Pichardo, in the mixed zone of Hayward Field.
The national record was missing and, above all, the 18-meter ‘bar’, according to the Portuguese jumper, who has a personal record of 18.08 achieved in May 2015, still as a Cuban.
“I am very ambitious, I am happy, it was a title that was in debt, but I will not hide that I wanted to jump 18 meters. The season is not over yet and I will keep trying,” he promised.
Asked about his father, the main ‘sponsor’ of the candidacy for world record holder and of overcoming the historic 18.29 of the British Jonathan Edwards, the athlete assured his satisfaction.
“My father is very happy, for the victory and because I got a good grade on the first jump. Although he did not exceed 18 meters, a world champion is always a world champion”, he stressed.
The Portuguese won his first world title on the reissue of the Olympic podium, with Hugues Fabrice Zango, from Burkina Faso, bronze medalist in Tokyo 2020, rising to second place, with 17.55, and Chinese Yaming Zhu, then silver medalist , in the third, with 17.31, in a final in which the Cuban Lázaro Martínez, who beat Pichardo in the indoor world championships in March, was excluded from the last jumps.
“It was like Tokyo, Lázaro only jumped well on the indoor track. Zango and Zhou just switched places, even though Lazarus would have made the best mark, he was in fourth place, but I know he’s not that good outdoors. It was as he expected, ”he assured.
After receiving the medal, without the public that attended the competition, due to the late programming of these ceremonies, outside the television broadcast schedule, Pichardo reiterated his knowledge of the national anthem.
“I will always have an accent. I have been in Portugal for years, my daughter was born there, my wife speaks Portuguese and what I speak at home is Portuguese and I have known the anthem for a long time, but of course I have an accent and of course there is always a word of Spanish that is run away, it’s normal,” he stressed.
Still in the mixed zone, it did not bother him that it was the first edition of the world championships in which the country where he was born did not climb the podium once: “This medal belongs to Portugal, I have nothing to do with it anymore.” with Cuba”, he concluded.
Source: Observadora
