Fusto beats Gaubeka and wins his seventh individual shovel title

The Argentinian Pablo Hernan Fusto conquered his seventh professional shovel individual champion title after defeating the Biscayan Stephen Gaubeka 3-2 (10-7, 5-10, 6-10, 10-8 and 10-7) in the final played at Bilbao’s Bizkaia fronton.

With this victory, the 41-year-old paddler from Buenos Aires equals the historical record of txapelas in this competition that the Navarrese had held alone until now Oscar InsaustiOlympic champion in Barcelona ’92.

More than 110 minutes and 500 balls were needed by the two great dominators of the specialty in the last two decades to resolve an even and very demanding match that began dominating whipbut it went back Gaubeka and was about to resolve in the fourth game.

The Argentine, very physically affected, put up with the guy as best he could and took the game to the fifth joko. With 3-4 in favor of Gaubeka a possible hindrance of whip that the judges did not interpret as a ‘return’ led to a fiery protest from the Basque who took him out of the match and stretched the score until the almost final 9-5.

whip He closed the final on the third match point (10-7) with a great pitch over his rival that sealed that seventh victory in the most important competition of the shovel modality that adds to those achieved by the Buenos Aires player in 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.