“Having gotten this far is already for us like winning at least half a regatta”. Álvaro González Camacho checks his 37-foot sailboat from the jetty of the Club Náutico de Palma, where sweltering heat sets the morning on fire. As he speaks, he points to the counterboom, a piece that helps adjust the sails.. Although not visible to the naked eye, it is still damaged after the incident. The incident: the encounter that his boat had with four orcas while the crew was moving the sailboat by sea to Mallorca from its base in Puerto Sherry, Cádiz.

“It was already getting dark, it was around 9:30 p.m.; the wind was blowing strongly, at around 28 knots and there were a lot of waves, it was a difficult afternoon at sea,” he explains after posing in front of the Kapote III, the sailboat that the orcas attacked when he was sailing three miles from the Malaga coast of Estepona. Suddenly, the crew felt a dull thud at the stern, an impact coming like a bubble from the depths of the Mediterranean.. The sailboat accused the blow, pitched on its course and was left with little steering. Not adrift, but with serious difficulty to remain stable on its journey.

Its crew, most of them in their twenties, did not know what had happened. Until they saw them emerging a few meters away: a group of four orcas was stealthily moving away from the boat after having struck. Only then were they aware that their hull had suffered the mysterious phenomenon that has been frightening sailors in the Strait for years and plunging the scientific community into confusion.. Killer whale attacks and their fixation with disabling the rudder of medium-sized sailboats. In this case, there was something new, since the attack had taken place in the Mediterranean, an area usually unexplored by cetaceans.

The rudder of the sailboat broken by orcas WORLD

The sailors of the Kapote III kept calm. They called Maritime Rescue and the ship was able to reach port with its sailors safe. But the damage was visible: two thirds of the rudder had been rendered useless, with the fiber torn and bulging, split in two due to the violent blow from one of the animals.. There were 10 days to go before the start of the Copa del Rey Mapfre de Vela, the competition for which the Kapote III had been preparing for months and for which it was heading across the Strait.

The Majorcan regatta has been one of the great illusions of Álvaro and his cousin, Ignacio Camacho, both owners of the boat, who had registered for the first time in the competition throughout the year. “We didn't expect that to happen to us after having already crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, but we weren't going to give up, we weren't going to give up, the Copa del Rey was our adventure,” he now explains with the satisfaction of having saved the odyssey and having managed to arrive in time to haggle in Palma.

Friends and 'amateurs'

These two cousins from Cádiz, along with Álvaro's other brother, Javier, have been sailing all their lives, although they are not professionals.. They are a crew of friends, amateurs who confirm the hybrid nature that characterizes the regatta that is held at the Real Club Náutico de Palma, where every August for the last 41 years the sailing elite has met.

Álvaro works in the architecture sector, as a project manager, and sailing is a vocation for him, an escape valve and an adventure with which he meets against all odds. Or, as on this occasion, against orca and tide. “Despite what happened to us, at no time did we doubt that we would try to do everything possible to get there, whatever the cost, we did not throw in the towel,” he adds.

Upon returning to the port of Cádiz after the incident, the outlook was not rosy.. On weekends the shipyards in the area close, the clock was ticking. The owners of the Kapote III turned to naval engineer Pablo Torres, a friend, a great expert in working with fiber. The Fundación Vela Clásica de España, based in Puerto de Santa María, lent its facilities to carry out the repair work. On Sunday they painted the new repaired rudder and got back on course, being able to arrive in Palma just in time for regulated training.

Finally, last Monday, July 31, they cast off to compete in the ORC 3 category, where the boat was in fourteenth position the day before yesterday, in the lower middle part of the table, made up of 21 boats.. On Wednesday morning, when speaking to EL MUNDO, the crew members rigged the boat to face the coastal regatta, a novelty in this year's competition. “With finishing and not breaking the boat anymore we would be satisfied, this is a giant competition”, explains Álvaro, the skipper.

The odyssey of Kapote III has not been an exception. Another two of the 100 sailboats taking part in the famous Majorcan regatta, the Corsario and the Tiro, have suffered attacks by orcas (or interactions, as the scientific community prefers to call them, which does not have a clear explanation of the causes) while they were heading to the island from its Atlantic home ports. Two of the damaged boats are Andalusian and one Portuguese. All of them have been able to repair on time, and participate with similar results, for the moment honorable, in the middle or lower part of the classification, none outstanding, but none as a red lantern either.

The Copa del Rey brings together more than 1,300 sailors of 16 different nationalities these days. King Felipe VI has reached the middle of the regatta in third position aboard his Aifos 500 in his category, ORC1. The test ends this Saturday.

“Alba is in a splendid state of form and with great enthusiasm”. His teammates or his coach do not say it, his father Antonio Redondo says it in a conversation with EL MUNDO. It is true that being his father, it may be more difficult to be critical, but this time he is not wrong. The Albacete woman stands out with the national team every time she has minutes. He signed a double against Zambia, and surely this Saturday, in the round of 16 match of the World Cup between Australia and New Zealand against Switzerland (7:00, TVE), if he plays again, he will know how to take advantage of his opportunity.

The team does not arrive at its best, especially after the defeat against Japan, which raised many doubts. However, the footballer is confident. “The bad days have passed and now we face the rest with a positive mentality and looking forward to the next game,” he says.. But the reality is that the result affected him. “That day she was very annoyed,” says Antonio.

From gymnastics to soccer

La Mancha discovered that she wanted to play soccer at the age of six. Of course, before he tried gymnastics. “As a child I was very nervous and active. So her mother and I decided to sign her up for gymnastics.. He did very well and was happy. What happens is that her brother played soccer and when she took him to train she came too.. She picked up a ball and one day she told us she wanted to practice this sport and we changed her. He liked the ball more than the trampoline,” admits his father.

It seems that the change was a success, but in addition to starting out in football, at the age of six Alba would also meet the player who would become an idol for her, Andrés Iniesta. At that time, the man from Fuentealbilla was taking off in his sports career. “There we took a picture with him and that image has always been in Alba's room. As Andrés progressed, she felt a greater admiration for him, and that's the way it has been until today,” says Antonio.

Your contact is not only referred to that snapshot, both players have recently spoken. Iniesta advised him before the World Cup. “Above all, he told me to enjoy myself and he gave me advice, since he has a lot of experience in this,” says Alba.

Alba Redondo in the match against Zambia, in which he scored two goals. NurPhoto THE WORLD

Surely for the Levante footballer these words meant a lot, above all, because it is the first time she has played a World Cup. In 2019 he entered the prelist, but ended up falling out of Jorge Vilda's call. He was also going to play the Eurocup a year ago, but a sciatic nerve injury prevented him from doing so. This is her big chance and she's taking advantage of it.. “I am living it happily and intensely. Since I was little I dreamed of this and I'm enjoying it to the fullest.”

Top scorer in the F League

The forward has worked very hard to gain a place among the 23 selected for the World Cup. She finished the season being the top scorer in the F League, with 28 goals. And as her father acknowledges, she lives by and for football. “She is methodical 24 hours a day in terms of food, rest, training and outings. Many times I think that you have to really like what he does because it is a sacrifice”, comments Antonio. And Alba not only works on the physical aspect, for the forward the psychological issue is also very important. “It is just as important or more than the physical. The mind is the engine of the body, you have to take care of it and, above all, take care of your environment”, says the footballer.

In addition to being a great player, Alba Redondo is an extremely familiar person, for her her people are “the best”, and she is lucky to be accompanied in this tournament by her brother and her partner. His father has not dared to travel to the antipodes because he does not dislike airplanes, but he acknowledges that if the team manages to reach the final, he will consider moving there. For this reunion to take place, the Spanish team still has a long way to go. Their next challenge is to defeat Switzerland tomorrow.

The Spanish coach, Jorge Vilda, appeared this Friday before the media at the press conference prior to the match against Switzerland this Saturday (7.00, TVE). It should be remembered that in the other two participations of Spain in this tournament they fell in the group stage and in the round of 16, so reaching the quarterfinals would mean achieving their best result to date.

Regarding what happened against Japan, the coach assured that “it is not a defeat that has been forgotten or that is going to be forgotten. It has caused a deep groove, but sometimes they are also necessary for the evolution and growth of the team.”

After the criticism received, the coach wanted to emphasize that he sees the team with total security and stated: “I notice a little bit of negativity, so…. Come on, Spain! Let's go Team! We're going to win the game!”

Switzerland, the rival to beat

Opposite will be Switzerland, which for Vilda “has something very valuable, which is that in three games they have not scored a goal. That means they have a very solid defence, they have players who make a difference.”

Regarding the two main threats for the Swiss team, Ramona Bachmann and Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic, the coach explained that he has analyzed their tactics in depth. In addition, he concluded the appearance by saying that “We know Ana-Maria, we have seen her all season. And if we know how to stop it, we have information.”. We will have to wait until this Saturday to find out if the Spanish team finally gets the victory and, therefore, the pass to the quarterfinals.

Every process of change requires a cycle of adaptation and learning. The key to success lies in the speed and efficiency in assuming the essence of the new direction. Carlo Ancelotti knows that he still needs a margin of time to get his latest outing on track. The departure of Benzema, the signing of Bellingham, the arrival of Joselu and the uncertainty about the fate of Mbappé have forced him to modify his usual system.

The 4-3-3 has evolved into a 4-4-2 with the geometry of the rhombus in the center of the field. A model that its players have tried to assimilate in a pre-season tour of the United States that ended this Thursday with a feeling of necessary improvement. In their last meeting, Real Madrid lost (3-1) to Juventus in a game in which their defensive weakness and lack of gunpowder were once again evident against the opposing team. The only goal for the white squad was scored by Vinicius. Madrid made 34 shots, which represents a very low percentage of success. Instead, Juventus only launched 11 times. In the previous game of the tour, against Barcelona, the whites lost 3-0 and shot 29 times. In total: 63 shots to score a goal. Xavi Hernández's team launched 12 times.

He accumulated a little more aim in the other two previous games, resolved with victories: 3-2 against Milan (13 shots) and 2-0 against Manchester United (15 shots). The sum of the four games reflects 91 shots and only six goals. One target every 15 throws. The scoring average on the US tour has been 1.5 per game. The percentage in the last League was 1.9.

The numbers reveal the lack of success of Ancelotti's rhombus, but the coach assured this Thursday that this does not worry him. «At the offensive level there is no problem. In defense we have to improve… It has been a positive pre-season. The team is not used to defending with diamonds and we have conceded many goals against. balance has been lacking. We need to fix it,” he said.

«The defensive aspect is the easiest to improve because it is a problem of positioning, concentration and attitude. In offensive pressure we were very good, but fragile in the low block. Lowering the block a bit may be an option to consider for the future,” Ancelotti continued.

The result of the Italian's new system depends a lot on the type of players that occupy the vertices of the rhombus. Kroos is not a specialist in defending in the position of 5, his benefits fluctuate depending on how the interiors close. Camavinga is very versatile, but sometimes he disperses. Modric has not yet reached the optimum level of form. With Tchouameni, the team seems more solid, but with less imagination. In the other part of the diamond is Bellingham, who has played well but in bursts.

On a defensive level, the team has shown itself to be very open because it forces the full-backs to go up too much to make up for the lack of opening in the field, so if they lose the ball at the start (Lucas Vázquez and Nacho have been unsuccessful) they remain highly exposed to kickbacks.

Offensively, Vinicius has been the best on this tour, but he has performed better when he has not started from the position that is assumed for him in the rhombus, but in his natural one: the left wing. Ancelotti says that he prefers to play on the inside because he scores more goals but that he is the best in the world on the outside.

Madrid seals a pre-season tour with an improvable performance. The group is not comfortable with the new system and Ancelotti still has work to do before next week's debut at San Mamés. The Italian trusts his squad. «I keep the good things we have done, with mobility up and the opportunities we have had. It may happen that we are not successful because we are less fresh to finish, but it is not a problem. I have seen many good things in attack,” he said minutes after the end of the match against Juventus, reports Efe.

Ancelotti got a grade of 6, highlighted the arrival of Jude Bellingham (“I liked him a lot”) and positively assessed the performance of Fran García. “He has played very well. He has a lot of energy, he reaches the bottom line well, he puts in good crosses… he is a reliable player,” he declared.

Sara Khadem, a chess player of Iranian origin who has just obtained Spanish nationality, has experienced a fleeting passage through the World Cup, which has been held in Baku since the end of July. The female grandmaster, who fled her country when she learned she would be arrested after refusing to wear the veil in an international competition, has the excuse that she hasn't been too focused on the boards in recent months..

The world number 15, former world champion under 12 and under 16, was one of the seeds in the women's draw of the competition, so she went directly to the second round. She was also a clear favorite against the Indonesian chess player Medina Aulia, her first opponent, who is behind by 133 Elo points, a significant difference.

The World Cup has a knockout format, like tennis tournaments. In the early rounds, the paired players play two games, one with white and one with black.. If they finish tied, the ranking is decided in quick games.

In her first game, Aulia played with great quality and took advantage of the inaccuracies of the Spanish player. On his Twitter account, Khadem wrote, still optimistic: “The first round did not go well. I'll try to fight tomorrow.”

Indeed, this Thursday she appeared ready to fight and come back, despite the fact that she had the black pieces. Contrary to his defeat the day before, Khadem agreed to enter the Spanish opening, although he chose an unusual variation, to try to 'get his less experienced rival out of the book'..

Aulia played very well again, however. She made calm plays and was not nervous under pressure from Khadem, who had an increasingly difficult position.. The female grandmaster at least managed not to be defeated again, but the tables did not help her to qualify.

Paco Vallejo, only classified

In general, the day was not good for the Spanish-speaking chess players. Among the four Spaniards who contest the tournament in the senior draw, only Paco Vallejo has already qualified for the third round. The Menorcan had miraculously saved himself the day before, after overcoming a position that seemed irrecoverable. Its king was a kind of Houdini who escaped from a real hunt for the pieces of the Serbian Velimir Ivic.

In his second game, Vallejo played much better, always calm and without rushing, knowing that a draw was enough for him and he was never satisfied with it.. Their only mistake was perhaps coming to a finish with mutual time trouble, a situation where mistakes are more conducive.. Despite everything, the Spaniard maintained his advantage and ended up also winning in the second game.

Another joy, for a temporary moment, came from the hand of Eduardo Iturrizaga, who already in the first round had to overcome an initial defeat. Against the Ukrainian Anton Korobov, a high-level player, he also started losing, but managed to balance the duel in a brilliant game. Quick tiebreak games await you, which will not be easy.

Jaime Santos and David Antón have also been forced to decide their pass in speed chess, after signing two tables each. The first comes from overcoming the first round with ease, against a much inferior opponent, but now his enemy is the Uruguayan George Meier, a tough grandmaster. Antón has not been able to overcome the local player Abdulla Gadimbayli for the moment.

There is still almost a month of competition left and there have not been too many surprises, with Magnus Carlsen looking for his first World Cup, the only major trophy missing from his showcases. Their most dangerous rivals seem to be the Indian chess players, with several stars not yet turning 20, led by 17-year-old Gukesh D, already among the top ten in the world..

This Thursday it has also been known that the chess player Alan Pichot, 24 years old and until now Argentine, has changed flag, like Sara Khadem, and goes on to defend the interests of the Spanish team. The man from Buenos Aires has been residing in our country for months.

“I have a constant lack of control”. Álex Ruiz (Málaga, 1994) is one of the best paddle tennis players in the world partnering with the Argentine Juan Tello and, at the same time, he has been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes since he was ten years old, a chronic disease that raises glucose levels blood and forces you to inject insulin to keep sugar at bay. Nacho Fernández, Madrid defender; tennis player Alexander Zverev and basketball player Lauren Cox are some of the active athletes who share a situation with Ruiz, who has already become one of the icons in the fight against prejudices about this disease.

“The body undergoes a lot of very abrupt changes, which you don't expect, and I have to give a lot of importance to recovery and sleep. Sleeping and eating well affects blood glucose a lot,” he summed up in a chat with EL MUNDO, admitting that “it is a very tense situation.”. The stress of the sport, especially of a paddle tennis in which many points are decided in the famous golden points to break the games, does not help either. On the contrary. destabilizes me. I also suffer a lot from time and weather changes.”

Do you remember any game in which it affected you a lot? Something happens to me in all of them. It is difficult because of the issue of sugar, that you run out of strength. And then at the end of the games, due to the tension and the nerves, my blood sugar shoots up.. Always. Let's say that from 250 milligrams of blood glucose per deciliter in blood, the doctors recommend that you not do any type of activity because it can be dangerous, and at the end of the games I am usually at 300. I try to control it and adapt.

The solution? Insulin. But this one is also changeable. “The body changes all the time and I have tools to solve it, but for example a dose of insulin that used to work for me may not work well for me now. There is no pattern that you can establish and follow in your day to day because it is a constant change”.

When he was diagnosed with the disease, Ruiz was told that he would not be able to dedicate himself to any sport. A stigma that still prevails today and that has made it a benchmark for young people suffering from diabetes.. “More pressure”, jokes the Adidas athlete, who has just presented his new Adipower Multiweight Ctrl shovel. “The children have the same doubts as me and I try to help them. I can tell you that I dedicate myself to what I like and being able to reflect that in society makes me proud.. I don't have perfect diabetes because that doesn't exist, but I do manage it as well as possible. Each diabetes is a world and maybe things that work for me are not good for another person,” he says.

The paddle tennis calendar, another problem

The world of paddle tennis lives immersed in the constant controversy between the circuits. Right now there are three: World Padel Tour, Premier Padel (led by Al-Khelaifi) and A1 Padel (owned by Fabrice Pastor). The exclusivity that WPT demands from its stars has been the trigger for the vast majority of discussions that have taken place in recent months.. Meanwhile, A1 manages its own players, who do not play any of the other two tournaments, and Premier wants the best in its events, even if it costs thousands of euros in compensation. This generates a chaotic calendar that never stops and in which players cannot stop so as not to lose points or money.. While Premier and WPT negotiate, many of them have already been injured as a result of the pressure and effort. “The problem is that we have to play World Padel Tour yes or yes this year and we have to play Premier because it is the future. What we demand for the next few years is that we can play the tests we want, that it be like tennis, an average, not a sum like now”.

One of the stars, Juan Lebrón, number 1 until this year, has been injured for several weeks and his partner, Ale Galán, has had to find a new partner in his absence. “If you stop, you miss five tournaments. You can't, because the sponsors also demand you, you lose ranking points, which in the end is what matters most…”. Reflecting on the calendar is more than necessary: “The calendar is crazy. From Málaga, with the heat, we are going to Mendoza, with the winter cold. This is the body, and mine, being a diabetic, suffers a lot” , analyzes the Andalusian, who is asking for changes for next season: “There is no time to recover, to work on mistakes… There are many injuries, people who play every game with bandages…”.

When the echoes of the complaint against the teacher and coach Alejandro Ramírez in the United States, accused of sexual harassment by eight women, have not yet died down, fourteen French chess players have lit another fuse. In a kind of collective “I accuse”, the chess players assure in an open letter published on Thursday that such practices are common in the world of 64 squares, by players, coaches, referees and tournament directors.. According to them, this is one of the causes of the early abandonment of chess by young women.

Among the original signatories are not the main stars of French chess, but chess players from other countries have also signed it, such as the Spanish Patricia Llaneza, the British Jovanka Houska and the American Jennifer Shahade, who uncovered the Ramírez scandal in the United States and has become a champion of the cause. The French Chess Federation itself has assured that it is “together with the victims and witnesses of sexist and sexual violence.”

“It's so powerful to see so many top chess players in France speaking out loud and clear against misogyny and violence in our beloved game.. This can no longer be minimized or muted. Proud to add my name to her letter,” Shahade wrote on Twitter.

“we have suffered sexist or sexual violence”

“We, women chess players, coaches, referees and directors, have suffered sexist or sexual violence perpetrated by chess players, coaches, referees and directors,” the letter begins.. “We are convinced that this harassment and these attacks continue to be one of the main reasons why women and girls, especially in adolescence, stop playing chess.”

“In the face of these acts of violence, we have remained silent for too long.. However, remaining silent means carrying only the burden of shame.. Finding the words and the courage to speak up can take time, but we believe it is necessary and healing.”

“Today we speak out and encourage all the players to denounce the violence they have suffered. For fear and guilt to change sides. So that perpetrators can no longer act with impunity So that players, coaches, referees, managers and supportive parents are aware of the scope of the problem and can be part of the solution. we believe you. We'll be there for you.”

Among the original signatories are female grandmasters (Mitra Hejazipour and Andreea Navrotescu), international masters and FIDE masters.. Although at the moment the great French chess stars have not signed the letter, the level of the signatories cannot be underestimated at all, among which there are several elite players.

The French Federation has also expressed its “total support” for the complainants, and has offered resources and help to report the case to the Ministry of Sports. “Together with the association Coloso con pies de barro and with the tools put in place by the State, the FFE promotes freedom of expression and accompanies the victims and witnesses of sexual and gender violence”.

Another of the most authoritative voices in world chess, Susan Polgar, also denounced when the Ramírez case was uncovered that she herself had accused a player years ago, without any success.. “Not only did they do nothing, but they severely punished me and put me on a blacklist,” he declared..

Last month, the player and referee Patricia Llaneza, one of the signatories of the French document, outlined four keys to harassment in chess. “Yes, women are harassed in tournaments. No, not all women and not at all tournaments, and (before some of you start yelling, not all men are stalkers. Yes, it still happens even if you say it doesn't. And no, it's not going to end for deny it”.

Seven years ago, Barcelona signed Ousmane Dembélé, with a checkbook, as a replacement for a Neymar for whom PSG paid 222 million euros. At that time, with an operation that could reach 135 million if all the variables were met, the Frenchman became the most expensive signing in the club's history.. At least, until, just a few months later, he was surpassed by the Brazilian Philippe Coutinho, who would later leave the Camp Nou to go to Aston Villa at a bargain price.

Now, the Frenchman will also pack his bags to go to the club chaired by the Qatari Nasser Al-Khelaïfi after also establishing himself as one of the most ruinous incorporations in the entire history of the Barcelona entity. And not only because of the 50 million euro transfer fee, half of which will be pocketed if the team led by Joan Laporta fails to avoid it.. Above all, because of a baggage that does not justify, at all, neither the investment nor the expectations that were placed on his shoulders.

The way in which his departure from Barça has been developed has not gone down well with Xavi, his great supporter and architect of the fact that the club ended up reinstating him in July 2022, once his contract had already expired.. “I wish him all the luck in the world, but I'm a little disappointed with Dembélé. He told us that he was leaving and there has been no way to convince him,” the Barca coach said on Wednesday after the 0-1 win against Milan, with a goal from Ansu Fati, who after scoring hugged the Frenchman as a farewell. The winger, as planned, did not play the game.

Dembélé's decision contrasts, and a lot, with the pulse that the coach himself launched at the club in January of last year. So, the dome decided to leave the footballer in the stands, while the Terrassa coach insisted on the need to have the player on the pitch. In the end, of course, he got away with it. With the numbers in hand, the cost of Dembélé has been exorbitant. The investment to achieve his transfer, without counting his file, rose to around 135 million euros, given that many of the variables included were not excessively complicated to comply with.

discreet statistics

The statistics do not lie and his performances throughout his time as a Barcelona fan are far from justifying figures of authentic crack. Throughout his six seasons in the ranks of the Barça club, he has only played 185 official matches, in which he has scored 40 goals. Or, put another way, each goal by Dembélé, if we take into account only the amount paid for the transfer, has cost Barça almost 3.3 million euros.

Its availability, moreover, has not been up to par either. In the last six years, muscle injuries have been a drag. Before his arrival in Barcelona, he had hardly had any physical problems.. From the summer of 2017 until the end of last season, on the other hand, the Frenchman missed 116 games due to multiple ailments, including two muscle tears.. His season with fewer injuries was 2020-21, with six games in the dry dock. The worst was 2019-20, in which he lost 37 games.

His departure from the club will close with the payment of 50 million euros by PSG. In principle, both the entity chaired by Joan Laporta and the player himself should distribute them equally. At the club, however, they understand that Dembélé's way of acting when managing times to force his departure has not corresponded to the minimum required diligence and they want the amount that is pocketed to be finally somewhat less. A circumstance that, in fact, would be one of the reasons that would be lengthening in time an operation that, by all accounts, would already be more than closed. This Friday is the deadline to announce his departure to PSG.