Africa-Press – Mozambique. Donaldo Salvador and Tino Novais represented Mozambique in the 47th edition of the BMW Berlin Inline Skating Marathon on Saturday (25-09).
After the competition involving more than 5,000 professional and amateur skaters, Salvador expressed satisfaction with his performance: “I’m satisfied, because I had a better time than in 2019.”
His colleague Tino Novais was a first-timer at one of the biggest inline skating competitions in the world, and already has an appointment in his bag. “The lesson I take home from the marathon is to prepare myself better for the next steps.”
The two athletes, who excelled in this year’s Quelimane-Maputo race, covering 1,600 kilometres in 23 days, not only improved their times but also claimed a ranking among the 300 best skaters in the world.
New “recipes” in the luggage
Coach and team director Rico Alibay also leaves Berlin with new “recipes” to improve his team’s performance.
“The lessons learned are immense, starting with the approach methodology, control and evaluation methodology of current processes, treatment of athletes at the end of the event, as well as the entire surrounding structure, allowing all athletes to feel that they have participated in a fair competition, where the results are also fair and with fidelity in their performance,” he details.
The coach does not hide his satisfaction at participating in Berlin, which he considers above expectations, in a 41,195 km race, although he is aware that the improvement in times is also due to the better conditions that Berlin provides.
Efforts to massify the sport
The skaters participated in categories B and C and could move up to A after Saturday’s results. Alibay says that “both athletes improved their performance and their reference times improved substantially”.
And the director is no afraid of facing up to difficulties. “Unfortunately we do not have devices within our reach to control and record the times per kilometre, but we will have them soon,” he said.
To make the sport more popular, the team has created a skating school that already trains 72 athletes in Mozambique. Donaldo Salvador appeals for government support, aware that he is on a long journey.
“I see that there is very hard work ahead to build the school in Mozambique, Maputo and other provinces, and provide guidelines with a view to obtaining better results,” he says.
