Paris – The maintenance of José Sayovo's record in the 400m, scheduled for the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece, 20 years later, represents pride for Angola and for the Paralympic Committee in particular.
The consideration comes from the secretary general of the Angola Paralympic Committee (CPA), António da Luz, reacting to ANGOP, in Paris, after Venezuelan A. Santos won gold with a time of 50.58 in the same distance for visually impaired athletes, Sunday, at the Paralympic Games.
António da Luz recalled that the achievement of José Sayovo (class T11) was carried out in a period of less technological evolution.
He mentioned that since the Athens 2004 games until the present edition, there has been a qualitative leap in relation to adapted sport in the world, due to greater investment resulting from the evolutionary indicators that practice demonstrates.
Today, according to the source, there are already different ways of preparing a high-competition athlete, using technological means that help to improve performance and yet Angola continues to maintain the record.
This fact, he said, means that Sayovo was a phenomenon in achieving not only the feat of Athens, but for everything he became in the world of Paralympic sport with successive climbs to the podium and achieving several world, Paralympic and African records, despite training only with basic conditions.
“At that time, Angola was not as evolved as it is today. We did not have as much information about Paralympic sport as we do today and we trained in terrible conditions, in the tents and in Coqueiros”, he highlighted.
António da Luz, one of the founders of adapted sports in the country, said it was a smart way to get Sayovo out of the Military Hospital, where he recovered after triggering a mine while he was in the military.
He said that a reference in world athletics was already by nature, resistant and regulated, characteristics that he developed for his success in adapted athletics, despite the absence, at the time, of the training technologies that we currently have.
As for the Sayovo post period, he indicated that the Angolan Paralympic Committee develops training stages with a group of identified athletes, both male and female, so that they can later make the country proud.
Subsequently, at the 2016 Paralympic Games, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the bet on the then promising young man, José Chamoleia, did not result in the expected gain.
In that sports event, the sprinter, seen as José Sayovo's main replacement, was close to the podium and then ended up prematurely giving up on sports.
From the CPA data, according to a source, since 2017, the focus has been more on the female sector, namely Juliana Moko, Regina Dumbo and Emeloid, the last two are not present in Paris for various reasons.
“We hoped that from Paris we would have the first samples of the way of working, that the perspective would be on the right track. Unfortunately, Regina and Emeloid ended up not coming to the games for different reasons, but Juliana Moko is demonstrating that we are on the right path”, he maintained.
He explained that in 2020, in Tokyo, Moko was eighth in the 400 meters and now in Paris she was in sixth place and that indicators point out that in Los Angeles the athlete could be among the four finalists.
He mentioned that there were also improvements in the 100m in which the runner clocked 12.51 and then 12.56 respectively in the heats category and semi-finals, against her best time of 13.03 since 2020.
António da Luz was even more confident in achieving the objective of ranking among the four best places in the three specialties (100, 200 and 400m) within four years, with a recent agreement signed between Angola and China.
The official indicated that one of the highlights of cooperation with the Asian country includes training and internships for national teams
“We are going to test a preparation model so that athletes can be observed and evaluated based on their margin of evolution. So let us take advantage of all these strengths that China has to provide them with qualities that allow them to compete and compete with those from the first world and who have technologies that Angola does not yet have”, he reiterated.
However, he argues that, based on what Juliana Moko is doing now in Paris2024, everything will depend not only on her commitment, but also on administrative support.
He said that the CPA will adopt a vision in terms of monitoring her social life as well as her preparation to create emotional stability, targeting two fundamental focuses such as academic life and the training process for the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028. MC/ADR/MRA/DOJ
