This Sunday, June 6, the Algarvian Luís Costa reached another podium at the European Paracycling Championship, taking 3rd place in the long distance race of the H5 class, held in Austria.
Luís Costa had the objective of fighting for victory today, but ended up finishing in third position, 1.53 minutes from the winner, Mitch Valize.
“I had some hope of discussing victory in the race. However, I realized that there was a difficult climb and I thought that if someone attacked it could be more difficult for me and that's what ended up happening. I still managed to respond to some attacks but it was not possible to fight for first place. It was third place, so of course I'm happy anyway», explained Luís Costa that he had already become runner-up in the time trial.
Despite having had a mishap early in the race, Flávio Pacheco managed to finish in sixth place, just 14 seconds off the fifth place. The winner of the competition was Frenchman Joseph Fritsch.
“It was a race within my expectations and that of the selector. I had a mishap right at the beginning, which made me lose some time, but I always fought until the end. I think if that hadn't happened I could have ended up in fifth place. Now, it's about continuing to work», said Flávio Pacheco.
The national paracycling coach José Marques could not be more satisfied with the six podiums won in the European Championship and makes a very positive assessment of the performance of the entire Portuguese team.
“It was a very positive day, as we once again got a podium in the European Championship. We played our role and fulfilled our goals. As I already said, Flávio Pacheco's class is very difficult, but he did very well and congratulations for the result he did. Luís Costa got another podium, so it's a very positive assessment of this competition. The podiums were the result of a lot of work and it is very gratifying to leave here with six medals», stated José Marques.
The Paracycling World Championship will be the next challenge for these athletes, which takes place between the 9th and 13th of June, at the Estoril Circuit, in Portugal.
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