Rain had washed away the stench of flares on the Kemmel Straight before the sun finally dried the good lane of the line.. It was a typical Saturday afternoon in Spa, with constant alternatives in the lead, until Max Verstappen felt like it. The leader of the World Cup let go, playing over and over again with his rivals, until at the moment of truth he appeared as an alien. With his 1:46.168 he was ahead of Charles Leclerc and Sergio Pérez by just over eight tenths. It was his eighth pole of the course, although he carried a previous penalty of five places for changing the gearbox. It doesn't matter.

He picked up his trophy of the day Mad Max and smiled for the cameras, so that Red Bull would not be too offended by the anger he had dedicated to his engineers. “I'm sorry I ranted like that,” he apologized.. It did not seem acceptable for the next champion to be irritated in this way, given his absolute control of the situation, almost obscene in the second sector. The configuration of his RB18, with more downforce than Ferrari, left Leclerc's options at nothing, who only had options while opening his DRS.

Pérez, with identical means, could not even show his nose and did enough to contain Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz, author of pole position last year. The man from Madrid shone in the first and last sectors, although he lost more than half a second in the intermission. At least, he did not receive the penalty for pushing to the track limits in his last attempt in Q3 and finished in a creditable fifth place. There was also no way for Fernando Alonso, ninth, to recover his tone with his Aston Martin.

10 minute late

With this 1,47,843, the Asturian is 1.6 seconds away from the head. Or five tenths of the first McLaren, which should be its true reference, after the magnificent inertia of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris from Silverstone. As expected, the AMR23 also does not find the rhythm of the best in these dizzying curves of the Ardennes.

The FIA, extremely careful, delayed the start by 10 minutes. The asphalt conditions must not have been so delicate when nobody mounted the extreme wet tire. Even with the intermission, Norris already saw and wished with an excursion through the gravel in turn 15. Meanwhile, there was trouble with Verstappen's impeding Alex Albon at turn 18, which could have led to another three penalty spots. The next champion, however, was acquitted by the commissioners.

Although a timid sun was peeking through the trees, no one could afford a distraction. Leclerc, usually uncomfortable in the cold and humidity, had to speed up his last attempt to get out of the well. And he did it by setting the best time in Q1. Alonso also spent his pluses and minuses before sneaking in among the best.

Tenth in Q2

The water was evaporating and the line seemed almost dry in corners like Pohuon. The appearance of the first slicks seemed imminent and Alfa Romeo was the first to be encouraged by Valtteri Bottas. But that example was premature. It would still be necessary to push to the extreme for the exponential improvement of the times. And there was no one who did not taste the taste of anguish.

That carousel of emotions at the close of Q2 was worth the price of admission on its own. Because not even Verstappen himself was spared, as bad planning with the batteries would make his engineers ugly. While Piastri led the table, Mad Max could only pass as tenth. And he still had Pierre Gasly and Kevin Magnussen to thank for his latest failed attempt. Another fateful Saturday for Alpine, who had already lost Esteban Ocon, due to a touch that caused damage to his front wing.

Elena Ruiz remembers that in her room, as a child, she had a poster of Roser Tarragó hanging and the anecdote describes her. By triple departure Ruiz is young, very young, barely 18 years old, which is why his childhood idol is still only 30. Ruiz is a gunboat, like Tarragó, and, in fact, is his natural replacement in Spain. And Ruiz has lived water polo since she was a child because her mother already played, an unusual inheritance.. The teenager, the pitcher, the passionate about water polo Elena Ruiz was chosen yesterday as MVP of the Fukuoka World Cup and that was surely the best news for the team after losing on penalties in the final against the Netherlands.

One defeat, another in the fight for gold -and there are already five between the World Cups and the Olympic Games-, which could not hide the fact that the team has a leader for many years. With Ruiz's arm as an argument, Spain will be planted in the 2024 Paris Games in search of the victory that resists it, but it can also be projected in the 2028 Los Angeles Games, in the 2032 Brisbane Games and even in the Games of 2036, wherever they are held. By then, surprising as it may seem, he will only be 32 years old.

His precociousness hardly resists comparisons: if anything, in Spanish sports, with Ricky Rubio. Born in 2004 in Rubí, a municipality in the industrial zone that surrounds Barcelona, Ruiz started swimming at the age of four and, following in the footsteps of her sister Ariadna, also an international at the World Cup, at the age of seven she jumped into water polo.. Her mother had played at Club Natació Rubí and that is why it was not strange to see her in the lower categories. But it was strange, very strange, that he made his debut in the Division of Honor just the day before his 13th birthday.

In the first year of ESO, with a cadet license, she was already a starter and, after the pandemic, while she was in her fourth year, she was the top scorer in the Spanish league. Then came the call of the selection. Despite playing for a modest club and her extraordinary youth, the coach, Miki Oca, took her to the Tokyo 2020 Games and gave her a lot of minutes. While other players of her generation, such as her sister Ariadna (2002), Cristina Nogué (2003), Nona Pérez (2003), Paula Camus (2002) and the goalkeeper Martina Terré (2002), struggled to gain a foothold -and are still in it- Ruiz was a leader since his debut.

“I am very proud”

He confirmed it in this Fukuoka World Cup. With an Olympic silver, a European and a Champions with Sabadell already in his record, he was the center of the Spanish attack along with Judith Forca, who with 24 goals finished as the tournament's top scorer. «We lost the final, but I think we had a great championship. I am very proud of this silver. It is very important to me. It is the result of all the training and all the sacrifices we have made as a team,” Ruiz commented at the end of the decisive match.. .

“It was a very tight match. Despite not getting the gold, we have to be satisfied with the result. Losing a final always leaves a bitter aftertaste, but we have to celebrate that we have won a medal and have qualified for the Paris Games,” added the coach, Oca.

In the match against the Netherlands Elena Ruiz did not shine as, for example, in the semifinals against Australia, when she scored four goals, but she did her part. In her penalty shot she was perfect, with a relaxation inappropriate for her age. Then, just after, Bea Ortiz, a close friend of hers, also a neighbor of Rubí, failed, and hence the defeat of Spain.

Actually, the whole team was wrong during the final, especially in defense, with the Dutch buoys marking at will. To reach the penalty shootout, the team had to come back from behind two goals in the last quarter and came to the conclusion heartbroken. As Oca recognized, the defeat left a bad memory of this World Cup, but the silver has value and more the confirmation of a leader. Here Elena Ruiz, only 18 years old, with the future ahead of her.

André Agassi argues in his Open biography that tennis is the loneliest sport because there is not even contact with the rival, as in boxing, for example. No reason. Underwater a swimmer is not only separated from his adversaries, he is also isolated from the public, he cannot shout and he hardly sees what is happening around him. Swimming is a desert. And on the road that crosses it, many, many have been lost. Two of the three best swimmers in history, Michael Phelps and Ian Thorpe, went through a severe depression, like Grant Hackett, Missy Franklin and, among the Spanish, Rafa Muñoz.

“When you submerge your head you are very alone. When you're good, you're the best, you break the corduroy. But when you're bad… You don't stop thinking that everything is fucking shit, “Muñoz explained a few days ago to EL MUNDO with aquatic confinement as one of the reasons for the scourge. But surely there is more. In discovering and treating them are now two swimming references absent from the present Fukuoka World Cup: Caleb Dressel and Adam Peaty.

Stars just two years ago at the Tokyo Olympics, where Dressel won five gold medals and Peaty, two more, now both are undergoing treatment to overcome their problems. One, Dressel, has already competed again, although far from his level, of the elite. The other one, Peaty, is on it.. In the diagnosis of both, with their differences, there is a common evolution marked by success: they fell when they reached the top.

«There came a time when I thought: Fuck swimming, fuck training! My life was the Olympic Games and everything had to be perfect. I won five golds in Tokyo, but I didn't get the times I wanted and I felt like garbage. I wasn't fair to myself. I fell into a well. I locked myself up,” Dressel recounted how he broke down after the best moment of his career. For several weeks he stayed in his room, without talking to anyone, without knowing what was wrong with him and, of course, without training.. Then he returned by inertia, he even competed in the last World Cup in Budapest 2022 and won two golds, but in the middle of the competition he relapsed: the sky darkened again, he caught the first plane to the United States and, then yes, he decided to stop. Not another stroke. The priority, his head. Tranquility and treatment. If you competed a few weeks ago in the Trials in your country, it was only to prove yourself. Whether he will be at the 2024 Paris Olympics is unknown.

Peaty's new life

As with Peaty. The Briton, who dominated the breaststroke between 2015 and 2020 – he managed to chain 18 consecutive races without losing – also broke after the Tokyo Games and disappeared from the water. In his case there was no confinement and therapy. In his case there was alcohol, a lot of alcohol, and religion. With two medals around his neck, Peaty suffered a rare injury training in the gym of his hotel in Tenerife, faced a divorce and his life fell apart. What was the point of trying to recover and win again if no one was waiting for him at home?

«As a swimmer you hope that a gold or a world record will solve all your problems, but when you achieve success like that you realize that nothing is fixed at once.. After all, a medal is a very cold object for which you have sacrificed your life. There is a moment in which you realize that you really have to stop and put order in what surrounds you, “explained Peaty in the middle of the process.. In his case, he was no longer at the World Cup in Budapest due to that strange injury and it is not very well known at what level he is currently training.

In the last year he has been seen giving swimming lessons to children, running some charity races, starting a new relationship with Holly Ramsay -one of the daughters of television chef Gordon Ramsay- and at mass, where he has found some refuge.. There he now dodges the isolation, the silence, the loneliness of swimming.

More opportunities will come because there is plenty of youth, talent, and motivation, but the curse will continue. For Spain the finals are to lose. In the big events he has played six and lost five, the last one this Friday, against the Netherlands in the Fukuoka World Cup (17-16). He only won the 2013 World Cup, in the Picornell pools in Barcelona, a blessed setting for national water polo.

Until now, the jinx, the sentence, the bad streak, had a justifiable reason: the United States. He was an executioner in the finals of the London 2012 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and in the 2017 Budapest and Gwangju 2019 World Cups. But this time, with the North American team already at home, eliminated in the quarterfinals, the disappointment was repeated. The Netherlands took a game that they really deserved on penalties.

The punishment was for Bea Ortiz, a benchmark for the new generation along with Judith Forca. She was the only one who missed her shot in the decisive round, where the Spanish goalkeeper, Martina Tarré, was not successful. But the selection had already been on the wire for too long.

From the break, discovering their defense of the buoy, the team led by Miki Oca let the Netherlands take the lead and turned gold into a miracle. He arrived at the last quarter with a two-goal deficit (9-7) and never in history has such a comeback been completed. If there was an opportunity, if the penalties were reached (12-12) it was because Paula Crespí and Forca herself stood out, but after five meters the Spanish arrived exhausted.

Strength and confidence were lacking: the remains of so many past defeats. On the way to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, with qualification already guaranteed, the team will have to do an exercise in psychological growth to achieve glory.

The United States, previously an unbreakable ceiling, is now defeatable and there are other teams that are presenting themselves to the fight for gold without the complexes that Spain drags. Despite the poor performance of some young women, such as Tarré or Elena Ruiz, the group faces the most important event with a successful generational change, young leaders like Forca and Ortiz and veterans capable of standing out like Maica García. Now all that remains is to climb again to a final so that, finally, after so many attempts, end the curse.

The First Chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Committee (CFCB) announced this Friday to exclude Juventus from the Conference League for possible infringements of the Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play regulations of the body chaired by Aleksander Ceferin.

“The First Chamber of the CFCB concluded that Juventus violated the UEFA regulatory framework and breached the resolution agreement signed in August 2022. Consequently, the CFCB First Chamber rescinded the resolution agreement entered into with the club and decided to exclude Juventus from the 2023/24 UEFA men's club competition,” UEFA said in an official statement.

In addition, it will impose on the Italian club an “additional financial contribution of 20 million euros, of which 10 are “conditional” and will only be executed if Juventus' annual financial statements for the years 2023, 2024 and 2025 “do not meet the requirements accounting standards defined in Annex G of the UEFA Club Licensing and Sustainability Regulations”.

The CFCB also concluded that Chelsea were in breach of UEFA's Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations “by having submitted incomplete financial information”.

“Following the sale of the club in May 2022, the new ownership identified, and proactively notified UEFA, instances of potentially incomplete financial reporting under the club's previous ownership.. The notified matters referred to historical transactions that took place between 2012 and 2019,” the football body said in the aforementioned statement.

“After its evaluation, including the applicable limitation period, the First Chamber of the CFCB reached an agreement with the club (Chelsea), which has agreed to pay a financial contribution of 10 million euros to fully resolve the reported issues,” he concluded. .