Álex Quiñónez, a career with nuances of success, fame and disagreements | Other Sports | sports

A request for “Sorry to all of Ecuador” is the last memory of Álex Quiñónez in the sports field, Ecuadorian sprinter murdered on the night of Friday, October 22 in Guayaquil, in situations not yet clarified.

In August of this year, the Emerald-born was left at the gates of his participation in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. A “whereabouts failure” led the Athletics Integrity Unit (UIA) to suspend the tricolor athlete, whose records put him as a clear medal option for Ecuador.

That was a “unintentional and fortuitous” error, as described by the national athlete, the third fastest man in the world after obtaining the bronze medal in the 200 meters of the World Cup in Doha, Qatar, in September 2019.

As “fortuitous” was the mistake that led to the suspension, unpredictable was also the outcome of an event that the national authorities are investigating s after what happened in the Colinas de la Florida sector, in the northwest of Guayaquil, a fact that took the life of Quiñónez (32 years old) and a career marked by sporting success, but also by personal problems that kept him off the slopes.

The emerald reached the top of world athletics in 2012, when he was measured with the fastest in the world in the final of the London Olympics.

Was a peak moment in his career, but also the start of a steep decline, which led him to retirement.

Álex Quiñónez: I apologize to Ecuador, I don’t even know how to explain it, but no one should be blamed

Upon his return to the country, his sporting situation was different, opposite to what was reflected on the track of the London Olympic stadium, where despite his seventh place he made it clear to the Jamaican trident, led by Usain Bolt, that he was a runner to take into account.

Quinonez began to be absent from training, did not participate in international competitions during the next Olympic cycle, without ever repeating performance in Rio de Janeiro 2016.

“The weight of fame” took its toll, considered at the time Manuel Bravo, president of the Ecuadorian Athletics Federation.

On 2015 was off the slopes. He separated from his coach, the Cuban Yosvaina Molina, and his environment in Esmeraldas complicated his preparation. The considered top sprinter of Ecuador He then dedicated himself to multiple activities, such as construction and mechanics, to pay for family expenses, but supported by his teammates Ángela Tenorio and Marisol Landázuri, he returned to the activity “with a different mentality.”

On 2017, and after a marked absence, Quiñónez returned to the tracks and to the national speed team. “Let’s hope everything goes well, I’m starting from scratch, fighting,” Quiñónez told EL UNIVERSO in the qualifying tournament for the Bolivarian Games in Santa Marta, Colombia, in which the Ecuadorian returned to the podium and took a gold medal in 100 meters. Presea and new Bolivarian record.

As in its beginnings, His return was meteoric, to the point that he once again rubbed shoulders with the best. In 2019 he was a medalist of gold in Pan American Games, ran the Diamond League and reached the branding for the Tokyo Olympics, which he finally did not attend.

In October of that year the Emerald stopped the clock at 19.98 seconds during the 200-meter dash final of the World Athletics Championships, in Doha. It was the third best record to win the bronze medal, an achievement highlighted by the athlete, who gave another face to a story between indiscipline and disagreements with coaches.

Álex Quiñónez wins a silver medal in the 200 meter dash of the Qatar Diamond League

“Two years ago I did not want to return and it is because of my colleagues that I am here. I proposed it and I am on the podium with a bronze medal ”, commented the athlete after the achievement.

The season of 2019 was rated by Quiñónez as “the best sports year”, sealed with a signing for FC Barcelona (Spain), already 30 years old.

After the stop of the COVID-19 pandemic, he went to Portugal to follow your workouts, the start of what it would be the last stage of his career, a residence that without being registered by his “authorized representative”, Alberto Suárez, originated the sanction that left him out of the Tokyo Olympics.

In June and September 2020, the athlete could not be located by the AIU for doping controls. The case was repeated in May 2021, with a record of Florida (United States) in the Adams system as a training place, when the athlete remained in Portugal, “A tragic mistake”, as acknowledged by Suárez, although according to the regulations “each athlete remains the last person responsible at all times for make accurate and complete whereabouts presentations, whether they make each presentation personally or delegate the task to a third party ”.

12-month suspension for Álex Quiñónez; sprinter will seek to appeal to reach Tokyo 2020

The suspension imposed by the AIU disciplinary court extended until June 24, 2022, and although the athlete presented the corresponding appeal and traveled to Tokyo with the “illusion” of competing, could not return to the slopes, this would be his farewell.

Quiñónez was considered one of the fastest in the world in the 200 meter modality, and although he longed for his return to an Olympics, “Only God knows what will happen,” he said in his last publication on social networks, in July.

His death shocks the world of athletics and Ecuadorian society, hit by an increase in violent events in the country, with a figure that exceeds 1,900 deaths so far this year, with Guayaquil as the most affected city. (D)