The president of the Superior Sports Council (CSD), José Manuel Franco, received this Monday a delegation from the Royal Spanish Swimming Federation (RFEN) led by its president, Fernando Carpena, and the five coaches who, between the 14th and the July 30, they will lead the Spanish teams and ranked athletes for the World Cups in Fukuoka, “a good test” for aquatic sports “one year after the Games”.

Technicians Arturo Miranda (diving), Ben Titley (swimming), David Martín and Miki Oca (water polo) and Mayuko Fujiki (artistic swimming) spoke with Franco during a technical-sports meeting, held in the Olympic Hall of the CSD, with the presence of the sports director of the RFEN, Luis Villanueva.

The Secretary of State for Sports appreciated the performance of the Spanish artistic swimming team at the Oviedo World Cup, with nine medals, and the CN Atlétic-Barceloneta men’s water polo team, which won the bronze in the LEN Champions League. “These results put Spain on a positive path, which fills us with hope for the Fukuoka World Cups,” Franco said.

“This appointment will be a good test for our aquatic sports, one year from the 2024 Paris Olympics,” added the CSD president of the Fukuoka World Cups this summer.

Franco underlined the “proven quality” of the RFEN technical team, to “look at the present and the future with ambition”. “The CSD accompanies this vision with a determined economic commitment through grants to Spanish sports federations, the total amount of which exceeded, for the first time, 100 million euros last year; and through the new program ‘ Team Spain'”, explained the president of the organization.

In total, ‘Team Spain’ will distribute 48 million euros between 2022, 2023 and 2024 to “revolutionize the preparation of Spanish sport and its strategic interest”. “In this objective of improving the results of the Barcelona 92 ​​Games, water sports will have a lot to say”, remarked Franco.

His counterpart from the RFEN, Fernando Carpena, valued the technical staff, underlining the “ambitious commitment” of the federation for this Olympic cycle. “The help of the CSD allows us to have two coaches who are references in water polo, like David Martín and Miki Oca, the great architects of our men’s and women’s teams being recognized as the main teams to beat in any competition. international community in which Spain participates”, he underlined.

The RFEN boss also praised the career of Ben Titley, who joined the structure of the national federation in September 2022 after his successful transition to the Canadian federation, with which he won 22 Olympic medals and 14 world medals.

For her part, Mayuko Fujiki has made a decisive contribution to the renovation of the artistic swimming team and to the explosion of young swimmers like Iris Tió, who has just won the silver medal in the free solo at the world disputed last week in Oviedo. . Likewise, and under the leadership of Arturo Miranda, Spain also aspires to achieve good results in the discipline of show jumping with the promising Nicolás García-Boissier and Adrián Abadía.

In swimming, in the absence of Mireia Belmonte, all eyes will be on junior world champions Carlos Garach and Emma Carrasco and relievers Sergio de Celis, Carles Coll, Mario Mollá and Luis Domínguez.