The Colombian John Sebastian Obando He won the gold medal in thes Paralympic Games 2024, after taking first place on the podium in the 400-meter race, in the T20 category.
According to the criteria of
Obando was the best on the track, recording a time of 48 seconds and 09 thousandths, to beat the Spaniard in the photo finish. David Pineda, which was silver, and to the one born in Mauritius, Yovanni Phillippe, who completed the podium.
The parathlete gave him a gift Colombia the fourth gold medal at these 2024 Paralympic Games, and the third medal on a dream day for the country, adding the silver of Nelson Crispín, in the 50-meter butterfly event (S6), and the bronze of Juan Alejandro Campás in the 40-meter race, in the T38 category.
Colombia thus has 13 medals and its best performance in the history of the Paralympic Games.
Obando, a relentless struggle to succeed
John Sebastian Obando Asprilla, Born in Villa Rica, Cauca, 23 years ago, he is a Colombian athlete who began competing in different athletics disciplines since he was 9 years old and, although he had moments when he thought about leaving the sport, since 2020, when he began to receive financial support, he focused completely on the sport and since January of this year he is part of the Colombian Paralympic Committee, an achievement that he celebrates as the result of more than a decade of hard work and the gateway to new opportunities.
Jhon Sebastián fondly remembers the Santiago 2023 Parapan American Games, because he obtained very good marks that gave him a gold medal in the long jump and a silver medal in the 400 meters, the same disciplines in which he will compete in Paris 2024, which will be his first Paralympic Games.
This makes him feel well prepared to make a good performance and continue to reap triumphs and medals. In fact, he says that the only thing that scares him before his trip to Paris It is precisely the moment when the plane takes off.
His success as an athlete is due to a combination of training directed by Luis Fernando Lucumí Gomez, who has accompanied him since his beginnings both in sports and in his life, and a strong ability to remain calm during competitions.
He prefers to spend the moments before going out on the track in silence, and when it comes time to compete, he trusts that the training and preparation beforehand have already done the hardest part.
To reach that state of confidence, he trains every day in the disciplines in which he competes and, when he is in concentration, he reduces the training sessions per discipline to half a day so as not to overload himself, and complements those days with therapy and jogging.
Although he considers himself an optimist, he never imagined that he would be able to see other cultures, experience other climates and see enormous technological advances thanks to sport. And much less did he imagine that every time he returned to his town, people would welcome him with affection and congratulate him. But the truth is that Jhon Sebastián is considered in his town to be an example of what can be achieved by making sport a way of life.
She arrived in Paris as the joy of the delegation and with the desire to continue fulfilling her dreams, to leave the name of the country, of her coach, of her grandmother who is in heaven and of God on high.
SPORTS
#Jhon #Sebastián #Obando #triumphs #Paris #wins #gold #medal #meters #Paralympic #Games
