The Colombian women Yeni Arias He fell by the wayside in his intention to get a medal in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The Risaralda native fell this Thursday in the round of 16, losing against the Korean Im Ae-Ji.
According to the criteria of
Arias had just defeated the Indian Preti Pawae by 3-2 in the round of 16 of the 54 kilogram category last Tuesday.
It was a real option
“I’ll be satisfied if I get the gold medal, because we athletes work to win, that’s what we do, we make sacrifices and we’re satisfied with just first place,” Arias had told TIMEabout his goals in Paris.
Arias had a difficult fight, in which she tried to set the conditions against an opponent who, from the start, took a defensive position. “You have to cut her off, because she’s getting away from you,” her trainer told her in the corner, at the end of the first round, in which three of the five judges declared the Korean the winner.
In the second round, the Colombian showed more power and went after the Korean, but she couldn’t make a difference and the judges leaned towards Im, 3-2.
In the final round, Arias was able to hit more comfortably and the Korean managed her advantage, but it was not enough for the Colombian to achieve victory. Thus, one of the delegation’s best chances of winning a medal ended.
Anxious
Arias was not decisive in scoring the key points that would give him the long-awaited victory and he lost the opportunity, once again, to go for a medal.
The Risaralda native was one of Colombia’s clear options to win a medal, but in the ring she looked anxious and could not recover from the news that she had lost the first round.
Jenny Arias, Colombian boxer at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
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Three years ago, at the Tokyo Olympics, she was one victory away from bronze and from continuing to advance in search of the final after falling to the Filipino Nesthy Petecio, who defeated her 5-0 and left her with an Olympic diploma, but not with the medal, which was what she wanted.
Arias couldn’t believe it. She suffered, cried and regretted what happened, because she couldn’t get the resources to buy a house for her family and operate on her father, Luis Arias, who was left in a wheelchair after fracturing his spine in an accident on one of the farms where he worked, but in life there are rematches, there are more opportunities to ‘get even’ and Paris is one of them.
She has been a three-time champion of the National Games, winning the silver medal at the Bolivarian Games of 2013 and was gold in 2017 and 2022. He won silver in the South Americans of 2018 and 2022 and in the Central American and Caribbean Games She won silver in 2018 in Barranquilla and gold in 2023.
Jenny Arias.
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The Panamerican Games They have seen her take bronze at Lima 2019 and gold at Santiago 2023, where she was the flag bearer at the opening ceremony, but the performance that filled Jenny Arias and left her among the favorites for a medal in Paris was the silver at the World Cup in India, when she fell to WenHuant Hsiao, from Chinese Taipei.
Once again, Arias’ hopes of winning an Olympic medal have slipped away on a day she wants to forget as quickly as possible.
Lisandro Rengifo
Special correspondent for EL TIEMPO
@lisandroabe
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