Carolina Marín will not defend the shirt of the UD Ibiza-CB Pitiús. The Olympic champion has not renewed her federative license to play national competitions this year, thus confirming the decision she made to the Ibizan club at the end of last summer after tearing her cruciate ligament and both menisci in May. The second serious injury in two years.
After missing the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, Carolina Marín, at 28, intends to manage her recovery in a different way and limit her appearances as much as possible to focus on the Paris 2024 Games.
The woman from Huelva split with the Ibizan club without having made her debut on the island in front of the Pitiusa fans, since her brand new incorporation was announced in the summer of 2018. In October of that year she premiered the CB Pitiús shirt in an official match against Recreational Order, in his native Huelva, leading the Ibizan victory by 2-5. From then on, Marín first went through the ordeal of a serious knee injury (January 2019) and then put his international commitments and tours before domestic competition.
Thus, the Andalusian would not participate again with Ernesto García’s team in the National League until September 2020, on the move to Benalmádena. Earlier, in February, it had been announced expected debut in Ibiza, in the confrontation with Rinconada, but the player from Huelva had to suspend it at the last moment due to the death of her father.
The best player in the history of badminton has not been able to get her thorn out of the island, where she really wanted to debut, and her departure leaves a bittersweet taste within the sky-blue club.
The head of CB Pitiús and the person who managed to sign him in 2018, Ernest Garcia, acknowledges that at the beginning of the season she received a message from the world champion, in which she conveyed her desire not to sign up for any National League club. “When he told me he didn’t want to go on I told him he was wrong, which benefits him by appearing in the Spanish League, which is his league. For her it was good to have a club, “says the national coach, who suspects that there is something more to the international’s progress. «Just as my relationship with Fernando (Rivas, Marín’s personal trainer) benefited at the time, now with the relationship I have with the Federation… it is seen that he does not want to continue. There is no bad feeling, but information is missing», regrets Garcia.
Taking stock of these two and a half years, the CB Pitiús coach acknowledges that having been able to link the club with a badminton star like Carolina Marín has given them “a lot”. “It has given us a series of values that have benefited us. It has transferred the image that in Ibiza there is a great badminton structure and it has made us grow as a club”, he argues, before admitting that at the team level, in the National League, the Spanish Olympic «has not added value».
Clara Azurmendino will debut against Rinconada
The player from San Sebastian Clara Azurmendi returns to the island to play for UD Ibiza-CB Pitiús on loan. The volantista with a past in the Ibizan club will be able to alternate her participation in teams from other leagues, such as the German and French. However, he will not be able to debut against Rinconada at the end of the month, because it coincides with another of his league commitments. Azurmendi participated last year in the Tokyo Olympics, finishing in fifteenth position after losing in the group stage.
