Very excited are Paralympic tennis players Brayan Tapia and Alexander Cataldo after they beat Austria 2-0 in the Portuguese qualifying tournament. With this Team Chile is again present in a men’s World Cup after 10 years, to be held in Italy between September 27 and October 3.
Although they had already secured Chile’s qualifiers in the semi-final with Australia, the team also managed to win as champions of the tournament.
How did this happen? Brayan and Alexander have been friends since they were kids. Both are from Antofagasta and attended rehabilitation in Teleton. It was there that they had their first encounters with tennis, without thinking that years later they would become high-performance athletes who would represent Chile in different worlds.
For Brayan this achievement means “that new doors are going to open, we’re going to be eligible for better things. Being able to achieve something for the country, we will finally be able to return to a World Cup and that means a lot, both to me and to my colleagues. It is very exciting to be able to play for our selection and a very beautiful feeling to be able to achieve what was not achieved a long time ago”.
“The preparation of each was very different because of the pandemic. I live in Antofagasta, Alexander in Santiago and Jaime (Sepúlveda) in Talca, so everyone had a super different preparation. While we didn’t stop physically training, tenistically we had stopped, at least I. At Antofagasta we had to stop, we couldn’t go back to the courts. I had a couple of weeks of a pre-season before this big tournament, then I went to Santiago and spent almost two months training. We stayed well, it greatly improved our level by training hard every day in Santiago to be able to represent Chile well,” Tapia adds.
This is also shared by Alexander, who currently ranks No. 1 in Chile and 25th in the world rankings. “This achievement for me is a feat, because we competed with countries that did not belong to us like Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania. It was up to us America, but as the team stayed strong everything went well. From the first minute we got into this and were told we were going to get mixed up with everyone, the team had an amazing attitude. We banked it in an amazing way and I’m really happy about it, I’m very proud of the team too. It’s pride, satisfaction, that’s what we all feel.”
“Before we came we prepared very well, we trained double days. I trained two hours in the morning and in the afternoon, we did an hour and a half of physique and psychologically we also came very well prepared. We came very hungry, eager to want to win, our goal was to qualify and with the running of the rounds they were giving things. The preparation we had was arduous, very strong and served us, because we got it very well ahead,” Cataldo says.
In Teletón Antofagasta well know and follow closely the career of athletes. “Sport has a positive impact on rehabilitation both at the level of development of physical skills and abilities, as well as psychologically. There are patients who arrive in Teleton by accidents and are in a duel for accepting the situation in which they are, and sports help them believe in their abilities and allows them to do other things”, explains the head of telethon Antofagasta’s Exercises and Adapted Sports Unit (UEDA), Sebastián Arancibia.
“The workshops we hold in Teletón, as part of the rehabilitation, are based on everyone being able to do sports, regardless of their motor commitment. With the triumph of Brayan and Alexander we are very happy; for us is an example of what can be achieved when things are done right. We have pioneered many adapted sports and are working on a development model that is sustainable over time and working collaboratively so that patients participating in the workshops can do sports, as well as a career.”
