Peace, June 22. ‘La Sirena’ Karen Tórrez and the young fencer Marco Rojas lead the delegation of 212 athletes who will represent Bolivia in the Bolivarian Games of Valledupar (Colombia) that will be held from June 24.
Bolivian athletes will participate in 27 disciplines, including basketball, soccer, volleyball, swimming, athletics, fencing, karate, taekwondo, judo and boxing.
Karen Tórrez, known as ‘the Bolivian Mermaid’, is one of the most emblematic athletes in the country with three Olympic appearances in London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
The 29-year-old swimmer born in the city of Cochabamba received a gold medal at the 2017 Bolivarian Games and three silver medals at the 2018 South American Games.
Although swimming came into her life at the age of 5, her life was able to take another direction from school, time in which she showed skill in classical and contemporary dance.
She swam and danced after her classes, and her mother would have preferred her to dance instead.
The end is already known and now ‘the Mermaid’ stands out in a delegation in which 16-year-old fencer Marco Rojas, also from the city of Cochabamba, is also called to play a leading role in Valledupar.
Rojas started in this discipline at the age of 8 and since then he has participated in several national and international competitions with which he has won two bronze medals at the Pan American Games in Lima and one silver medal at the South American Youth Games in Rosario.
Another of the Bolivian figures is the athlete David Ninavia, born in the mining town of Llallagua in the Potosí region, who won the gold medal in the 5,000 meters at the last Junior Pan American Games in Cali in 2021.
In that same year Ninavia, 19 years old, won the title of the South American Championship of Athletics U-20 in Lima.
The president of the Bolivian Olympic Committee (COB), Marco Arze, recently told Efe that the athletes who go to Valledupar are “the best” that Bolivia has.
“The objective of the Olympic Committee, aside from obtaining medals, is the possibility that athletes can begin a training and preparation process with a view to the 2024 Paris Games,” he said.
Arze added that there are good chances of “making a podium” in disciplines such as cycling, athletics, swimming and fencing.
A total of 11 countries, including seven members of the Bolivarian Sports Organization, Odebo, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela; plus four guests, Guatemala, El Salvador, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic, will compete in the XIX Valledupar Bolivarian Games that will compete for medals in 54 disciplines.
The contest will be held from June 24 to July 5. EFE
lnm/hbr
(photo)
