Global Courant 2023-04-16 11:06:31
With energy, persevering physical and mental preparation, as well as very clear objectives, the Guatemalan boxer Léster Martínez added his fifteenth victory in a row. He faced the American Isaiah Steen without complexes and defeated him by knockout in the eighth round in a ring in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is undoubtedly one of the international epicenters of this professional discipline. “Here we start towards the world championship,” said the 27-year-old boxer from Peten, who currently holds two continental belts: the World Boxing Council (WBC) and the Boxing Organization in the super middleweight category.
In 2018, Martínez won the gold medal at the 2018 Barranquilla Central American and Caribbean Games, but it was not her first. As a youth athlete, he had won Central American championships in 2011, 2013 and 2017. In 2019 he ventured professionally into this sport, about which there are not a few controversies, due to the implicit violence, but it is one of the oldest types of competition and with wide public all over the world.
With 15 consecutive victories, 13 of them by knockout, Martínez stands out as one of the most outstanding Guatemalan boxers in history. For this reason, Prensa Libre named him Sports Person of the Year 2020. In that year, despite the limitations imposed by the pandemic, he won his first belt.
Values such as perseverance, humility, strength, optimism and family unity are combined in the personality, career and successes of Martínez, who never forgets to exalt his origins in Melchor de Mencos, Petén. He values teamwork by acknowledging the contributions of his coach and technical staff. In other words, it is he who performs in the ring, but he is never alone, especially since the will of millions of Guatemalans accompanies him, inside and outside the territory.
At the level of talent pools, in the National Boxing Federation there are new promises. Between September 28 and October 1, 2022, the XXV Central American Championship was held, in which young Guatemalans obtained 10 medals in various categories. Paradoxically, that achievement occurred two weeks before this federation and the entire Guatemalan Olympic sport were suspended from all world participation, due to the unfortunate suspension of the statutes of the Guatemalan Olympic Committee issued by the Constitutional Court to favor a directive that It is not recognized by the International Olympic Committee. It would be a pity, not to say a shame, if sports careers were cut short due to struggles interested in resources and not in trying out champions.
Martínez makes his way in a tough race in which there are predominant powers, but he advances without fear and without limits. Therein lies one of the most powerful and motivating examples that it is bequeathing to Guatemalan children and youth: if you yearn for something and fight for it, it can be achieved. And a metaphor can also be extrapolated: the country faces savage adversaries such as corruption, negligence and educational backwardness, but together, without fear and with an eye on the goals of the Nation, we can defeat them.
triumph without fear
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