This morning, at the athletics track of Campus de Elviña (A Coruña), the presentation of the new season of Yolanda Gutiérrez took place, the Galician athlete who, with the sponsorship of Maeloc ciders, has decided to take a step forward to become a professional in this sport with the aim of reaching the Olympic mark so as to participate in the Rio Olympic Games 2016.
Born in Boiro (A Coruña) in 1982, Yolanda Gutiérrez has worked as a social worker for the last 11 years, a job that she has combined until now with her sporting achievements and that has marked her solidarity by donations of a large part of her winnings to charities.
She has great challenges ahead such as the New York Marathon, but especially the Spanish Marathon Championship to be held in Seville in February, and which will determine her participation in Rio in 2016.
Yolanda Gutiérrez was accompanied this morning at the presentation by Francisco Alabart, General Manager of Custom Drinks and a roller hockey legend who achieved great triumphs with Liceo, and by Iván Raña, Triathlon World Champion in 2002 who has become a leading figure in the Ironman category.
Alabart explained the reasons why a cider brand such as Maeloc has decided to back Yolanda Gutiérrez in this new stage of her sporting career.
In addition to values such as talent and effort, the managing director of the company wanted to highlight the fight for a dream that has moved the runner to take this personal challenge, creating a strong bond between her and the brand slogan “Serás quien quieras ser” (“Be who you want to be”)
Iván Raña wanted to offer his support to Yolanda in the challenge she has ahead of her, and encouraged her to enjoy the journey and the day to day experience, even more than the sporting successes that she is sure to achieve in the future. He also expressed his gratitude to a brand like Maeloc for its commitment to sportspeople that need backing to be able to train and develop all their abilities.
Yolanda Gutiérrez spoke about the huge change that being able to dedicate herself full-time to sport has meant in her life, thanks to Maeloc, “To take this leap, the most important aspect is exclusive dedication. It’s a very ambitious brand and a very difficult challenge. It’s a guarantee that you can dedicate all your time to this and to be able to do so with a Galician brand, from my part of the country, and that helps female athletes: it’s really important for me.
There’s a moment when you compete during your holidays and you immediately go back to work when you get back. I couldn’t compete in the Spanish Federation marathon nor the Galician one as I had no annual leave left. On a Galician leveI was at the top of the marathon and half marathon rankings, but the moment arrives when you need something else to motivate you and you look for a more ambitious objective. Rio is a very ambitious project. We are talking about running an average of 3:36/35 for 42 km. That’s a lot. I have 6 months left to get the spot that I‘m looking for in the Spanish Championship in Seville, in February”
This year she is also very excited about her participation in the New York marathon,
“I need to run a marathon and I’ll do it in New York. I don’t aim to set a great mark there as it would mean a great effort and my objective is to reach Seville in good condition, so what I want to do is enjoy the race which is a dream race for any marathon runner. From then, I have 3 months during which I will continue with the race calendar and concentrate on reaching the mark. I’ll do a 10km race, the San Silvestre Vallecana (Madrid), that race will be competitive, and I want to measure myself up against the best”
About her preparation, she said
“I’ve been exclusively training for this objective for the last two months, with important base and strength preparation. In August I will begin specific preparation and, for the first time, I will get together with fellow racers and rivals in Soria to mutually learn from each other, motivate each other and, ultimately, enjoy the journey”.
She wanted to finish by sending a message to all those athletes who are chasing a dream,
“To all young athletes I would say to carry on trying, don’t lose hope. Curiously, it came to me when I was neither looking for it nor expecting it. I started late. I think it’s a question of attitude. If you like what you are doing, carry on and sooner or later you’ll find the way to get where you want”.
