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Spain’s Cerezo on the ‘roller coaster’ of a silver medal

Tokyo, Jul 26 (EFE).- Spanish Taekwondo athlete Adriana Cerezo said Monday she hopes her silver medal gives the sport a boost in popularity.

At just 17, Cerezo won Spain’s first Tokyo 2020 Olympics medal on Saturday.

“It has always been talked about in the Olympics.

“Every year, after each round, it has grown a little and I hope that with me it will grow a little bit more,” she told Efe in an interview.

Cerezo, one of the youngest athletes in Spain’s Olympic team, was just seven seconds away from the gold medal in the 49-kg category fight against Thailand’s Panipak Wongpattanakit, currently ranked number one in the world.

But despite the incredible achievement, the young athlete says she has “mixed feelings” on her Olympic debut.

“An Olympic medal is incredible,” she told Efe. But being so close to the gold medal and losing it in the last seconds leaves you with a “roller coaster” of emotions between joy, frustration and reflection, she added.

Despite the knot in her stomach after losing the final by a tight 10-11 score, Cerezo says she enjoyed the experience of fighting for the first time against Asian opponents, who have a different fighting style.

“For me, it was a very complicated style and one that I wanted to be able to test. There was no better place than here,” she said.

Earlier in the Games, Cerezo defeated China’s Wu Jingyu, a taekwondo legend with two Olympic gold medals (Beijing 2008 and London 2012) and three-time world champion, with 33-2.EFE

mra/mp/jt

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