The second attempt was made under greater pressure, as they needed to improve the result. Carmona managed to complete the descent without falling, but acknowledged that some technical errors ended up costing time. “I didn’t fall, but there were some technical errors that made me lose seconds”, he said, remembering that in official training he had achieved times that would place him higher in the classification.
Despite this, the athlete highlighted the significance of participation for national sport. “I’m happy overall. This participation goes down in history, because it is the first time that a Portuguese person participates in the Paralympic Winter Games”, he stated.
Carmona did not hide, however, some competitive disappointment. “I’m not going to lie, there is some frustration, because I know that under the best conditions I could reach 12th place”, he admitted, highlighting that the experience will serve as a learning experience for the future and to continue working towards the next Games.
In the race, the Portuguese snowboarder finished in 18th positionamong the 20 athletes competing, after recording 1.16.58 minutes in the first descent and 1.07.52 in the second, the latter time being what counted for the final classification. The gold medal was won by the Italian Emanuel Perathoner, with 54.28 seconds on the second attempt, followed by the Swiss Fabrice von Gruenigen (56.29) and the Australian Ben Tudhope (57.33).
Pedro Flávio, president of the Portuguese Winter Sports Federation, also considered the decision to bring forward the event to be correct. “It was a good choice because tomorrow there could be poor visibility and dangerous conditions to compete”, explained the leader.
Leave a Reply