CAMAGÜEY.- "I'm going to write to you, because I'm still hoarse," Rose Mary Almanza replied via Messenger many hours after becoming world champion. The best runner in the history of Camagüey's athletics is crowning her career in this cycle with titles at all levels, but what she achieved last Sunday in Poland is a milestone that deserves the explosion of her throat.

In fact, she and her companions from the 4x400 meter relay made thousands of Cubans use their Internet megabytes to follow the final of the 2021 Silesian Relay World Championship live.

Rose Mary acknowledges that the story of this feat began a long time ago, when the Cuban athletics family stood up to the pandemic and created a training bubble. Along the way they had several obstacles, but with the support of the family, the coaches and their fellow Olympic preselectors were able to continue.

“We arrived at the competition with the preparation on point and very concentrated, because we knew that it was the only opportunity to qualify for the Olympics. When we hit the 3:27:90 mark in qualifying we were really excited. Until then, our objective was the ticket to Tokyo, but we realized that we had more ”.

Even with the absence of powers like the United States, Jamaica or France, it was difficult to climb to the top of the podium. That did not change with the plus of having achieved the best mark for a Cuban post in the last 12 years.

“Despite the pressure, we reached the final very happy. Before going out on the track, we said to ourselves: "Today we are four in one body," and that's how it was. We enjoyed the competition, each one of us did their important part in the post and the auction was spectacular ”.

And indeed, they deployed a race plan that allowed them to float among the first three until Roxana Gómez from Cienfuegos took the baton, who reminded the Caribbean Storm with an epic comeback in the last 150 meters to pass first at 3: 28:41 minutes, with the representatives of Poland and Great Britain at the back.

At the finish line the four souls fused together again in a four-letter embrace: Cuba. “It was a beautiful moment, of indescribable happiness. We arrived at the edge of the stands to celebrate with our coach, who fought so hard with us along with the rest of the technical team. I hugged Yipsi, because she always trusted that we could achieve something so great and she supported us unconditionally. We kept screaming and jumping ”.

The first title in the world for a long relay of the Greater Antilles has triggered expectations for the Olympic Games, something that must be handled with measure in the final stretch of preparation. We must know how to differentiate one competition from another, because in the Japanese capital there will be the great favorites with teams that allow substitutions in the qualifying rounds, while ours will arrive with the accumulated exhaustion in their individual events.

However, La Almanza has a positive mind: “We have already shown that we can do better times and good tactical work. We know it will be more difficult, but we will try to get into the final to fight with everything. Nobody knows what might happen ”.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez