“Strong mind, strong body”. This is Pablo Abarca’s motto, indoor university champion of France in shotgun and disc drive and one of the privileged few to pursue a master’s degree at the Faculty of Sciences of the Academy of Limoges, where he studies Material Sciences with an emphasis on High Quality Ceramics. The athlete born in Pérez Zeledón, was recently crowned champion in this prestigious event where he reached 15.81 meters in the shot, and 43.34 meters in the discus.
A few weeks ago, this great Costa Rican broke his own Shot Throw Indoor national record, with a record of 16.49 meters. The event was held at the Stadium Miramas Metropole, in the south of France.
Pablo, a native of Pedregoso, has lived in France for 8 years and participated in this event of the French Federation of University Sports. “This stage is a new step in the right direction for the Central American Games in Santa Tecla and the Central American and Caribbean Games in a venue to be defined where I hope to get medals for the country, so I seek to reach 17 meters by that time”, said the athlete. He assures that he dreams of an Olympic Games but to qualify he must throw at least 21 meters so there is still a long way to go but Abarca legitimately dreams of it.
“Pablo is a boy with a great desire to grow. I met him for the 2018 Nicaraguan Central American Athletics Championship, where one of my recommendations was that he had to try a little harder and try to throw more than 16 meters, which I am very pleased that he is achieving. He is a very dedicated person and depends on himself to reach and transcend”, reviewed the Olympic hammer throw athlete, Roberto Sawyers. In this regard, the Tico trains 20 hours a week, so he performs and perfects the same gesture, over and over again; launch and re-launch, as far as possible, this metal weight of 7 kilos and 250 grams.
Abarca states that the shot put is like a type of liberation. “The throw, in fact, is a full body throw; it is the hand and arm that do the throwing, but it actually starts from the legs. It really is a feeling where you feel like you really have a lot of strength and a lot of energy”, Abarca explained.
