The Sevillian sailor from the Real Club Marítimo de Punta Umbría has been distinguished with the Terras Gauda National Sailing Award for the best Paralympic athlete of the year
· Montes is the current champion of Spain in the 2.4 mR and the head of the Spanish team in this class that will compete next September at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
· The sailor reaches the top of the Paralympic sport five years after a serious accident that left him in a coma for a month and caused him to lose a leg
· In addition to his sporting merits, he received the award for his work to promote the sport of sailing among people with disabilities through the IN Association
The Sevillian sailor Arturo Montes will receive this year the Terras Gauda National Sailing Award for the best Paralympic athlete of the year after becoming the Spanish 2.4mR champion and becoming the head of the Spanish team in this class that will compete next September at the Games Rio 2016 Paralympics.
The athlete from the Real Club Marítimo y Tenis de Punta Umbría reaches the top of Paralympic sailing five years after being run over by a boat while swimming in the Portuguese Algarve, a serious accident that left him in a coma for a month and caused him to die. loss of a leg.
After a long and hard recovery, Montes returned to a sport with which he had already won the Copa del Rey and participated in the Barcelona World Race, but in a new class, the 2.4mR, to which he had to adapt. Little by little the victories followed one another and in this 2016, the Sevillian managed to fulfill one of his dreams, that of attending the Olympic Games representing a class that, for the first time, is not going as a guest, but on its own merits.
It has been a year, says Montes, “of many joys, but also of a lot of work and sacrifice , with very intense training in the high performance center of Puerto de Santa María, where I had to go 3 or 4 times a week driving for over an hour ”. Participation in the Olympic Games and the Terras Gauda National Sailing Award “are an impulse -he assures- to continue sailing and training with even more enthusiasm, and to encourage other people with disabilities to practice sport”.
Precisely his work to promote the sport of sailing among people with disabilities is another of the reasons that the jury of the National Sailing Awards has taken into account when awarding him the award. Arturo Montes founded the IN Association years ago to promote adapted sports, from which all kinds of people with different disabilities can approach and practice different sports, and even train to compete at the highest level.
The Terras Gauda National Sailing Awards will be presented on September 3 at the Monte Real Yacht Club in Bayonne, in a gala that Arturo Montes will not be able to attend because he will already be in Rio preparing to compete. The president of the Spanish Association of the 2.4mR class, Teresa Silva, will collect the award on her behalf.
