When athletes from the other countries were sharing victories with their teammates before the awarding ceremony yesterday, bronze-winner for compound bow man, the 21-year-old Roberto Hernandez, could only stand there alone, playing with his fingers, as he was the only one from El Salvador to participate in the Eighth World University Archery Championships.
“It feels strange to come here all alone without coach and teammates. Attending the competition alone was difficult. For example, I have to ask helps from a Spanish athlete with my clothes and he is also my temporary coach in Shenzhen,” he said.
Studying at the Matias Delgado University, it was not the first time Hernandez coming to international competition all by himself. “I was the only university student in our archery national team and our government had limited investment in these university games, so I had to come alone. But luckily, I’ve already got used to it,” he smiled.
Hernandez said that archery had become more and more popular in El Salvador. “In the World Archery Championship in 2007, our team won the golden prize and in 2009, we also came the third. Because we did great jobs at the competitions, it has become more and more popular. However, we don’t have many outstanding university archers yet,” he said. It was the first time Hernandez coming to China. “I only heard about Beijing and Shanghai and I did not expect that Shenzhen was such a modern city. Everyone here is so nice to me and I hope I can come next year,” he said.
It was the best result Hernandez’s got since he attended international competitions. “I hope I will not be here alone for the Universiade next year. We’ve got a very talented girl and she will enter university next year. I hope I can come with her and my coach and my goal is to win a prize next year. I really want my teammates and my coach to share my joy,” he said. (Wang Yuanyuan)
Source： 大运官网 Editor： JOJO