The Algarve's Ana Cabecinha, who finished today in 4th place in the 20-kilometre Athletics World Championship, taking place in Beijing, declared herself "very happy" with what was her best classification ever.
The athlete from Pechão (Olhão) covered the 20 kilometers of the race in 1:29.29 hours. The gold medal went to Chinese Chinese Liu Hong, who is a world record holder, with a time of 1:27.45 hours,
In 2nd was also Chinese Lu Xiuzhi, with the same time as the winner, with the Ukrainian Lyudmyla Olyanovska (1:28.13 hours) being 3rd. Of the other Portuguese, Vera Santos was 21st and Inês Henriques 23rd.
At the end of the race, visibly happy, Ana Cabecinha, 31, pointed out: “It was way above my expectations. I never thought: I knew I had trained well, that I had arrived here without any physical problems. But, I never thought about fourth place. I did think about the sixth, seventh, eighth».
The Portuguese record holder (1h27.46 hours) was always in the lead, and in the middle of the race appeared in eighth place, 40 seconds behind the first.
In the second half, Ana Cabecinha confirmed her status as an athlete with the skills to fight for the podium, progressively improving until she finished less than a second behind the third placed, the Ukrainian Lyudmyla Olyanovska.
“It's the feeling of not taking risks sooner. But I am aware that I took the risk at the right time. This 4th place is my best World Cup ranking; I can only be happy», added the Algarve athlete.
The goal is now the Rio2016 Olympic Games, which Cabecinha says he is now facing with "another mentality". “We are going to train better than this year to get to the Games in the best conditions and fight for the best possible result. Of course: Games is Games».
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