La Jornada – Luis Aviles of Morelos paid for the World Cup in Nairobi and tomorrow he will win a medal

Luis Antonio Aviles covered the expenses of competing at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Nairobi. The Morelos family held the raffles and borrowed money to pay for their preparation and the trip the 2018 Youth Olympic champion in Buenos Aires was on the verge of claiming a historic medal on Saturday in the 400 metres.

After qualifying for the final the day before beating his Mexican record holder to leave him in 45.63 seconds, the Cuautla-based Yautepec native’s effort would indeed be a personal feat.

“He wants the gold and I tell him ‘Don’t trust yourself, son,'” says his mother, Magali Ferrero, who is still excited to see the distance race on the African track with his victory. the heat With a huge advantage and emerging as a favorite on the podium in the world. Since winning Olympic gold in Argentina, they thought things would change, says Magali, who hasn’t stopped his support for traveling abroad, competing in the US, or doing camps, like the one he did in Tokyo last year. “Everything is working on its own.”

He admires his descendants for their progress in the face of adversity, their knocking on doors that remain shut due to “many obstacles from governments and, as Lewis tells me, ‘with my results, I show them what I can do'”, as part of the transition to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Even the Mexican Athletics Federation was not interested in supporting him and they are “asking us to pay in cash because they don’t accept (credit) cards”, such as happened when he asked for support to go to Miami or Japan.

“He’s a youth Olympic champion and they’re putting his achievements aside,” because despite him being in the National Center for Sports Talent Development and High Performance because of the pandemic, they haven’t opened doors for him.

“I gave birth to two friends and only Lewis survived. When he was a kid, he turned purple and the doctor told me he had asthma, to take care of him too much, because he wouldn’t be able to run, but I tell him ‘You are the hero of life, because you just look how far you’ve come,’” he said. Ferrero.