The Catalan athlete Alex Roca, first in the world with a 76% physical disability to finish a marathon
Euskaraz irakurri: Desgaitasun fisikoaren % 76 duen Alex Roca athlete, bere egoeran munduko lehena maratoi bat bukatu duena
He Catalan athlete Alex Rocawho suffers a 76% physical disabilityhas achieved this sunday finish the Zurich Marató Barcelona 2023, the Barcelona marathonwhich makes it the first athlete in the world in his situation to finish a marathon. Roca, 32, has crossed the finish line with a time of 5:50:51: “I decided to run it so that people who feel afraid or do not see themselves as capable of achieving this goal will see me cross the finish line of a marathon and say to themselves: I can too”, he said.
“The limit is up to you; if you want to achieve an objective, whatever difficulties you have, with attitude, willpower, perseverance and resilience, you can achieve everything you propose. And if you do not achieve it, you will have given everything, and you should feel gratified”, declared Roca.
The athlete suffers from 76% disability, and cerebral palsy, since he suffered herpetic viral encephalitis when he was only six months old. He has also undergone several operations on the tendons in one foot, because he had a very pronounced curvature in it, and has reduced mobility on the left side of his body.
Roca had previously completed five triathlons, one aquatlon, five half marathons (Barcelona 2019, 2022 and 2023, Granollers 2023, New York and Miami 2022), the Titan Desert in 2019 and the Pilgrim Race in 2018. This Sunday, in the marathon from Barcelona, has set a cadence of seven to nine minutes per kilometer, starting with 7:49 in the first five kilometers (39:06); he has followed between seven and eight minutes until the half marathon (21,097 kilometers), which he has covered in 7:35 per kilometer (2:48:30). He has overcome the “fearsome” wall of kilometer 30, at four hours, four minutes and four seconds of the race, with 8:56 per kilometer in that section, in a cadence that he has maintained until kilometer 40.
Roca has finished in position 10,754 of the 10,863 participants who have finished the course. In the classification of male athletes, it has been 8,651 out of 8,723 who have finished the race.
Source: Eitb
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