Jorge Vieira is confident of Pichardo’s double at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but worries about the absence of Donmo and Mamona.

The President of the Portuguese Athletics Federation (FPA) this Monday expressed confidence in the confirmation of Pedro Pablo Pichardo’s title in the triple jump at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, fearing the absence of Oriol Dongmo and Patricia Mamona.

Speaking to Lusa, Jorge Vieira emphasized the value of the mark Pichardo received on April 20 in Xiamen, China, where, after almost a year of absence, he jumped 17.51 ​​meters and ensured his presence in the French capital. .

“The athlete has trained and is training well. Now even with another member of his technical team, with medical support also from the FPA. Thus, the athlete is completely healthy, and as we saw from the result, in fact, in fact, as I predicted, in the first jump he reached the qualifying mark,” recalled Jorge Vieira.

When asked about the dispute between Pichardo and Benfica, the director admitted that it is a “tense situation” in which “tension” is maintained without fear of affecting the Olympic champion’s sporting performance.

“All this is being overcome. Obviously the situation with Benfica is still up in the air. This tension exists – and which I hope will be overcome – but which does not contradict his competitive participation,” he concluded.

Jorge Vieira, however, is less optimistic about the recovery of thrower Oriol Dongmo, fourth in the shot put at Tokyo 2020.

“I’m much more worried about Oriol. I would say that it is very difficult to participate in the Games, very unlikely, but above all, to participate in the Games at a high level. If you participate, you are unlikely to be able to be at the highest level, because the whole process so far has been aimed at restoring health, and not at restoring physical fitness,” he said.

According to Jorge Vieira, the Sporting athlete, who has not competed since mid-September 2023, although she has already secured the minimums for Paris 2024, “will now begin to perform her first training exercises, but she has very little time for the Games.” .

“This is a very big question,” admitted Jorge Vieira, who says he believes Portugal will be represented among the 20 athletes present in the Japanese capital in 2021.

In an identical situation is Patricia Mamona, who won silver in the triple jump at Tokyo 2020, suffering from severe pain after recovering from a knee injury that has plagued her for almost a year.

“As for Patricia, from a health point of view the situation is the same. How will she recover from the minor but multiple injuries that have occurred over the past few years? This is a question that worries me very much, but naturally it is not okay. in our hands, but in biology,” he emphasized.

Despite this, Jorge Vieira is optimistic: “We have less good cases, but we have Pedro Pichardo defending his Olympic title and I hope he can repeat this title now in Paris.”

The leader is also confident of the “recall” of the mixed walking relay of Joao Vieira and Vitoria Oliveira, in a ranking in which the Portuguese are in last place, after failing to qualify directly on April 21 in Antalya, Turkey, and qualifying Agathe de Souza for Paris 2024.

“Agathe de Souza came to Portugal in 2019, she already has naturalization, so she already has Portuguese citizenship. We are waiting, we are still waiting for the green light from World Athletics. That little big piece is missing. This is not a detail, this is an important issue,” he explained, believing that this permission will be received before the 2024 European Championships in Rome, in June.

Benfica’s Agathe de Souza, still from Sao Tome, reached the Paris 2024 minimum in the long jump, reaching 6.88 meters on April 25 in Lisbon.

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will take place from July 26 to August 11.