Ricardo Montes de Oca has one of the five best world records obtained this year by U-18 athletes in the pole vault: he is only 15 years old and is one of the emerging promises in the new Olympic cycle in Venezuela.
The swimmer María Yegres or the weightlifter Kerlys Montilla are put to the test with him at the beginning of the cycle towards the Paris-2024 Olympic Games, after the serious economic problems that Venezuelan sport had en route to Tokyo-2020.
The road, paradoxically, closed with enormous success despite the crisis, with Yulimar Rojas in front.
Montes de Oca raised his arms, celebrating, after exceeding 5 meters in training at a military facility in Caracas. He excitedly hugged his father, who yelled at him: “Do you see that you could? Let’s go!”.
It was a warning: he later won the pole vault gold at this year’s South American Youth Games, in Rosario (Argentina), with a record of 5.06.
And on Friday, at the National U-20 Championship in Barinas, he improved his mark to 5.11.
Only the Polish Michal Gawenda (5.40), the Swiss Valentin Imsand (5.30), the German Hendrik Müller (5.20) and the Czech Ladislav Sedlacek (5.20) surpass him in 2022 among U-18 pole vaulters. .
The new Olympic cycle starts for Venezuela with the Bolivarian Games of Valledupar-2022, from Friday, June 24 to July 5.
The mirror of Yulimar Rojas
It is not easy to prepare if funds are lacking.
The good results of Venezuela in Tokyo-2020 (gold for Rojas in triple jump, and silver medals for Keydomar Vallenilla and Julio Mayora in weightlifting and Daniel Dhers in BMX) contrasted with a previous ordeal for many athletes.
Even an Olympic champion like the fencer Rubén Limardo, gold medalist in London-2012, had to combine a few months of training in Poland, where he lives, with a job as a bicycle food delivery man.
“You always look for a way to get ahead,” Montes de Oca, a fan of extreme sports such as parkour or BMX, tells AFP. He manages with some old poles in his native Barquisimeto, some 360 kilometers west of Caracas.
“The feats that Yulimar has done” in the triple jump are the mirror in which he looks at himself, although there is still a long way to go in the pole vault, proof that his idol dominates, the Swedish Armand Duplantis, owner of the world record (6, 20m).
Duplantis jumped 5.30 when he won the Junior World Championships, aged 15, in 2005.
«I started as a pole vaulter at the age of 13 and it has gone very well for me. I have come a long way”, said Montes de Oca, who has improved his personal best by 21 centimeters since last August.
He is not the only young man with high projection.
Yegres, 16 years old and with the versatility to cover multiple distances, was the queen of the local National Games in February with 10 gold medals and on the international scene she shone at the 2021 Junior Pan American Games in Cali-Valle del Cauca (Colombia), with gold in the 800 meter freestyle, silver in the 200 and bronze in the 400 and 1,500.
Although he trains in Spain, where he lives since 2014.
“I have done things that we had not even planned to do,” he has told the press.
Montilla, 17 years old, has just been a medalist in the 45-kilogram category at the U-17 World Cup in León (Mexico), with gold in the snatch (71 kg), bronze in the clean and jerk (82 kg) and silver in the total (153 kg).
“asking for hint”
Olympians such as Limardo, Vallenilla, Mayora or the judoka Elvismar Rodríguez lead the Venezuelan delegation in the Bolivarian Games, but the new litter attracts attention.
“They are asking for clues. They are telling everyone: here I am,” María Soto, elected president of the Venezuelan Olympic Committee (VOC) in May, told AFP.
Soto was appointed after an internal conflict that led the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to warn of a suspension of the country, a threat that was finally dispelled with a single slate negotiated with government intervention.
“We are very hopeful”, underlines Soto.
Economic problems are still a threat. “It is still difficult. It is a reality (…), however, we are directing the resources we have towards our athletes, ”says the leader, a former Olympic softball player.
