European countdown to Beijing - Mario Pestano (ESP)

Spain has never won an Olympic medal in the throws but Discus exponent Mario Pestano could end that barren streak in Beijing and he even has a good chance of winning his country's first athletics gold medal since they hosted the Games in 1992.

"To be honest, I'm not thinking specifically about the gold medal, nor am I being defeatist because there are other good throwers, but I am definitely thinking about getting on the podium. I'm hungry for that and I know that is a definite possibility, whether I finish first, second or third is almost the same to me," said the 30-year-old from the Canary island of Tenerife.

"This is the moment of truth for me. I've made the final of the last three World Championships and finished fourth at the last two European Athletics Championships. I've been so close to a medal I could almost taste it in the past. If I get a medal I think the first thing I would do is bite it to make sure it's real," joked Pestano, extending the eating analogies.

"The Olympics are any athlete's goal. Firstly, just to be able to participate in them is beautiful but I did that in Athens four years ago, when I missed out by one place on getting in the final. Now a medal is my target.

"In the past 12 months I've trained harder than ever before and also managed to avoid injuries. Usually I train five or six hours a day, depending on the programme, although I usually have one day's complete rest a week as that's very important, it lets my muscles recover and it's possibly one of the reasons why I've had so few injury problems in my career.


"It's not easy to be in the top three in the world or even the top 10 so you've got to live the life and take very good care that your health doesn't let you down. Otherwise you've thrown away all your other hard work.

"Another drawback to so much hard work is that I must be the palest guy living in Tenerife, at least someone who comes from there not a tourist! I get a lot of jokes made at my expense because I spend so much time in the gym and my friends and family are outdoors a lot of the time in the summer. People from Tenerife are usually very brown skinned, but not me!.

"However, all the work means that I'm in the best physical shape I've ever been in. It just makes me think that if I had a half decent technique I'd have been able to throw at least 71 metres. I sometimes wonder to myself how I've managed to throw so far when I'm still throwing so badly compared to some of the other top guys," added Pestano, with his usual self-deprecating humour.

In fact, outside of the discus circle, it's unusual to see him without a smile, which is one of the reasons why he's such a crowd favourite at Spanish athletics meetings despite the country's disposition towards middle distance running.

His photograph on the Spanish athletics federation's Olympic guide shows his with a broad grin, in sharp contrast to the stony-faced demeanour of many of his compatriots.

Even if he hasn't yet broken the 70 metres barrier, Pestano has recently got very close.

At the Spanish national championships last month he threw 69.50m for his eighth national record, adding nearly a metre onto his own mark set earlier in the summer.

Pestano stands third on this year's world rankings ahead of the Olympics, behind only the Baltic giants of Estonia's Gerd Kanter and Lithuania's Virgilijus Alekna, the reigning world and Olympic champions respectively, giving rise to a very good possibility of a European clean sweep of the Discus medals.

He takes to Beijing an eight competition winning streak, including a victory in the SPAR European Cup in June, and while many athletes have been apprehensive about what they may find in Beijing, Pestano was positively relishing the trip ahead of his departure form Spain on Thursday.

"I've been to Beijing before, seven year ago for the World University Games, and I had a great time. It's one of my best experiences in athletics. I was in a different world and it made a huge impact on me, especially my trip to see the Great Wall of China," added Pestano.

This time Pestano hopes to be bringing back something more tangible than just fond memories from his trip to Beijing, not least a medal.


Other information:

Mario Pestano homepage

Videos:
Mario Pestano - 67.18
Mario Pestano - 68.61
Mario Pestano - 68.61 side view
Mario Pestano 63.51