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From San Pedro de Alcántara to Hungary. That has been the journey Carla Viegas, the triple jumper par excellence of the Spanish U17 basketball team. Along with their teammates and the team’s coaching staff, they played the world championship in the European country, where the youth managed to reach the semifinals without encountering competition, except for their first match against the also semi-finalist Canada.
After a scare against France, in which the girls they had to come back 13 points, managed to reach the final to face the United States. Although they did not achieve gold, today these twelve girls are runners-up in the world. “It’s crazy, I still don’t believe it,” Carla confesses to EL ESPAÑOL from Malaga.
Winning the galas in the semifinals was a rush for them. Being down on the scoreboard until the last quarter, and finally winning by seven, was something they didn’t expect at the start of the game: “At first I thought we were losing.” Viegas says that after the confrontation they began to feel that they were capable of beating the USA. They encouraged each other: “We won, eh, we won!”
When the end came the motivation they had did not drop despite going down the whole match on the scoreboard. The triplista says that they were “there, there”, but that in the end they gave it “more for lost”. They return home knowing that they have reached the top.
Success has been a path marked by effort and improvement. Carla knows a lot about that. She recounts that he started playing almost “out of obligation”: “My father was a player and I went to see him at the games, although being in a team had never caught my attention.”
The malagueña used to go shoot some baskets with him, but she didn’t want to join a team. “they forced me a little and I ended up liking it. It was then when I started”, narrates the malagueña.
The club
CAB Estepona is the club Carla plays for now, but it has not always been his home. He started at his school, at the CEIP San Pedro, before joining his current team: “As my father knew the people there, they told him: «Why don’t you point the girl, we have a equipment good?»”. After two years, he decided to try Andalucía Promesas, but a year and a half later, he returned to what is now his home.
He explains that already in childhood “he went up” to play with the cadets; that is, the older ones. When asked about the quality of her game, Carla blushes, but admits she used to have her “dots.”. That’s how she rates the 15 average points she used to shoot through the hoop in games.
Now, play in league Challenge, the second women’s division in Spain, but since she was little she has been in the elite. Already in minibasket, the Malaga team wanted to count on her, and even went to the Andalusian team in cadet. Last year she played with the Spanish U16 team in a European championship, in which they won gold.
The percentage from the perimeter has been the best of the world championship. With a 45.1% success from the triple, Carla adds 23 shots from three scored of the 51 that she charged during the competition. His thing, in addition to talent, is also work and desire. “After training I usually stay to shoot with my father”Carla affirms normally.
In the days of rest He usually goes to the Pineda, the pavilion where he plays with his team, to practice shooting. Viegas tells it naturally, aware that it is something that he likes, so he does not suppose a sacrifice for her.
Since he has returned from Hungary keeps getting phone calls and invitations to radio shows. Joking about her “new life as a celebrity” Carla laughs and denies it. Looking ahead to the next season, she prefers to stay at home, with her family, and continue playing with her club, where she has been since she was ten years old.
It is clear to him that when he has to go to university, in a year, he will leave across the Atlantic: “I want to go to the United Statesand since this is the last year I have left in Spain, I would like to spend it with my family”.
A) Yes, the best triple jumper in the world in its category continues in Pineda for one more year knowing that is part of a “good team”. The girl who was forced to play basketball, now no one stops her. Within a year she will carve out her future on the American continent.
