The Portuguese Athletics Federation (FPA) assured this Friday that the problems with the travel of a third of the national team that will participate in the World Cups in Budapest 2023 are solved, according to the National Technical Director.
“At the start, all problems are solved. It was an unprecedented and unexpected situation. The athletes have to go first. For example, me, most of the officials and only the athlete Liliana Cá, who does not compete in the first days. , he is the one who is going to stay to arrive tomorrow [no sábado]”, explained José Santos, in statements to the Lusa agency.
The delegation of 29 members of the Portuguese team that will compete in the 19th edition of the World Athletics Championships was held this Thursday at the Frankfurt airport, in Germany, due to the cancellation of the flight to the Hungarian capital, which delayed the trip. of , at least 12 athletes.
“I say apparently, because it has been chaos with this situation that we did not expect. The airline (Lufthansa) has not facilitated, not even when it comes to athletes. It had never happened to me ”, admitted the technician.
The first Portuguese to compete in Budapest 2023, in the streets of the Hungarian capital, is the walker João Vieira, in the 20-kilometre march, on Saturday, starting at 8:50 a.m. local time (7:50 a.m. in Lisbon). , which is in the group was held in Frankfurt.
Still on the first day of competition, there will be Francisco Belo and Tsanko Arnaudov, in the shot put classification -whose final is still being held in the Saturday night session-, Marta Pen, Salomé Afonso and Isaac Nader, in the classified for the 1,500 meters, Tiago Luís Pereira, in the triple, and the mixed 4×400 meter relay, which will be made up of four of the six athletes (João Coelho, Omar Elkhatib, Ricardo Santos, Cátia Azevedo, Carina Vanessa and Fatoumata Diallo) .
According to José Santos, these athletes will arrive in the Hungarian capital today, after being divided into groups and after finding various solutions, including direct flights from Frankfurt to connections with stopovers in Vienna and Amsterdam.
The cancellation of the flight between Frankfurt and Budapest occurred after the Portuguese Athletics Federation (FPA) confirmed the absence of Pedro Pablo Pichardo, Olympic, world and European triple jump champion, from the competition.
With Pichardo’s absence, confirmed on Thursday, due to low back pain that kept him out of the open air for most of the season, Portugal was left without the two Olympic medalists, after Patrícia Mamona was also left out due to injury, with 28 athletes in 21 events. in the 19th edition of the World Athletics Championships, which she has won with a record of 23 medals, seven gold, seven silver and nine bronze.
Source: TSF
