“We will have the selective for the South American in Lima with the interclub marching championship,” says the president of the Ecuadorian Athletics Federation.
Marchists from Brazil, Bolivia and Ecuador – awaiting confirmation from Colombia – will go out on Saturday, January 8, to the National Marching Championship in Machala for the qualification to the South American Championship in Lima next February.
“We will have the selective for the South American (Lima) with the interclub marching championship, in Machala, with the participation of Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and possibly Colombia ”, he specified to Efe Manuel Bravo, president of the Ecuadorian Athletics Federation (FEA).
The marchers will participate in three categories with distances of 5 kilometers for those of the sub-18 (18 years) both men and women; in the sub-20 category, in 20 kilometers; adults in two distances, 20 kilometers and 35 kilometers, men and women.
Bravo regretted that David Hurtado, 23, could not recover from a fibrillar rupture that he suffered during the 20-kilometer route in which he won the gold medal at the I Junior Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia, in 2021, and in the Olympic Games of Tokyo it was placed nineteenth.
“Definitely David Hurtado will not participate, he has excused himself due to his injury. The important thing will be that he recovers for the next competitions ”, he pointed out.
The manager asserted that, although the tournament has the character of a qualifier, it will be held by self-management of athletics and the support of the Prefecture of El Oro.
“The runway of the old Machala airport will be used to develop the competition, thanks to the self-management of athletics and the sponsorship of the Prefecture of El Oro ”, he said.
The principal of the FEA assured once again that “Ecuador has a complete team for competitions in search of international classifications”, within the Olympic cycle for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Budget allocations
However, not everything is rosy for athletics. Bravo said: “We are concerned about the lack of economic allocations. So far we are not clear about the budget allocations, nor about the new High Performance Plan”.
The allocations for the Ecuadorian federations by sports and the monthly payment that High Performance athletes receive come from the Ministry of Finance and are in coordination with the Ministry of Sports, which is commanded by Sebastián Palacios.
“We remain expectant that the Ministry of Sports will tell us and, on that, reach and reach the resource on time, because we already have events between February and March,” he commented. (D)
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