David Ramiro |
Madrid (EFE).- Quique Llopis, current Spanish 60-meter hurdles champion on the indoor track with a national record (7.48), faces the European Indoors in Istanbul (Turkey) with maximum confidence and with the aim of consecrating himself with a great championship getting on the podium
Llopis (Bellreguard, Valencia; 2000) faces this European Championship after completing a good season in terms of indoor track results, with victories in the Valencia rally, the World Athletics gold circuit test in Karlsruhe (Germany) and the Spanish Championship .
Q: How did you get to this European?
A: Very good, with a lot of confidence after two months with good feelings. I will try to run as well as possible and achieve the objectives.
Q: Do you see this year as the year of consecration?
A: Last year it was very good, but we needed to finish off. This year he is on the right track and we have to finish doing well in this European Championship.
Q: Asier Martínez will not be there due to medical leave. How does it feel to know that you will be the focus of all eyes on the billboards?
A: I have spoken with him about all this, I send him my encouragement and I am sure that in the summer he will give his best version. As for me, it is something that I never think about whether there will be a lot of people pending. I play it down to take the pressure off. I want to go enjoy and run.
Q: From the outside, the perception is that you are a very confident athlete. Is it so?
A: Yes. It is something that I have improved a lot this year compared to the past. I am having a lot of confidence and I think that a very good European can come out. I want to continue with the same confidence, the same concentration and I believe that everything will turn out.
Q: How do you see this European?
A: We are 32 athletes in competition. I see 31 rivals on the track and I am going to try to do my best, compete and consecrate myself at an international level, achieving a great championship.
Q: Of the competitions you have had this winter, which one do you prefer?
A: With a few, really. In Karlsruhe I achieved my first victory on the indoor track circuit, something quite special, but the Spanish Championship was amazing and the rally in Madrid was crazy because of the atmosphere. With those three competitions I stay.
Q: Is Asier Martínez a mirror in which to look at yourself?
A: We are from the same year, we have been competing together for a long time and we are rivals on the track but outside of them we are great friends. It has helped me a lot, it has inspired me and it has motivated me to continue working and training to the maximum to achieve great results. It is a mirror, because seeing what he has achieved is extra motivation. It is somewhat complicated because he has achieved incredible things.
Q: Spanish athletics has always stood out for its midfielder, except for some individualities in other disciplines. What do billboards have to make them fashionable?
A: It is something that I think about, seeing the level that has been reached in the fences at a national level. It all started with Orlando Ortega a few years ago. It was the great inspiration that the level has been raised so much. Nowadays with marks in which you would not enter the final of the Spanish Championship years ago you would get a medal. It is something very good for the event and it will be very useful for everyone to continue improving.
Q: What does the figure of Orlando Ortega represent?
A: He has been Olympic runner-up and third in the world among other things. It is an inspiration and a motivation to know that we have him here and that we compete with him. I hope to find him on the slopes again soon.
Q: Why did you start hurdling and not another discipline?
A: As soon as I started in athletics, they put me in the fences. I think it was because of the height he was at the time. Toni Puig took me on right away, after two or three months, because he was in the high performance group, and he took me to train with him. He had a good eye, I think, and he got me into the right test.
Q: Why did the fences snag you?
A: At the time there was a training partner, Luis Salort, who did hurdles, and I remember seeing him jump and saying ‘how cool’. It was a great motivation for wanting to improve, to be like him and he helped me a lot.
Q: Very good athletes have been coming out of Valencia lately. What does Valencia have for this generation to have come out?
A: A good coach has joined with good people. I don’t think anything unusual happened. The luck factor of a good coach with a good athlete always influences and together everything is exploding.
Q: Do you see yourself with a medal in Istanbul?
A: There is always the thing of getting a medal at the international level but that’s it. I am going to compete, to try to give my best version and if it has to come a medal will come and if not for the next one.
Q: After Istanbul, the priority objective is the World Cup in Budapest?
A: The indoor track is important but the outdoors is more important, where is pure athletics and I am better at it than the 60 hurdles. The indoor track must be used as preparation for the open air and I am looking forward to the year because I am feeling very well.