Ten o’clock in the morning Las Acacias Shooting Range, in Perales del Río. Landscape of gravel pits, modest bar-office. Bang bang bang! A single shooter, focused, busts dishes without stopping. As he did in Tokyo with Fatima Galvez to hang the gold in mixed trap. It is Alberto Fernandez (Madrid, 38 years old).
It is his field, which he runs with his father, Gregorio, the one who put the poison in him. “The hardest”, He is joking, because on the horizon the ocher of the gravel pits mixes with the green of the poplars and the brown of huge thistles, which makes it difficult to hit the 11 cm diameter pills that are thrown at more than 100 km / h. “So when I go to a competition they look like pans to me!” He laughs. It’s the little world of a champion, who he has done “very few interviews,” he laments, since his triumph. The routine that precedes the outbreak in a sport that, according to him, “is not a minority.” “If we add shooting licenses (43,000 in 2020 according to CSD data) with hunting (377,000), we would be the second sport in Spain,” he warns.
“Gold does not change your life. It helps skeet shooting in Spain, clubs, federations or fans have their moment of glory. Everyone asks them about the boys who won the medal. If I were Italian or American, I would change. There this sport is professional. Fatima and I are not. We work. I have my school and my company Turiro.com with which I sell products, advise, do experiences with companies … Unfortunately, I don’t have a salary to throw away, “he says, doing an X-ray that is used for the vast majority of sports.
“Yesterday I was in the field from nine to seven in the afternoon. On a Saturday, from eight to eight. You have to manage it, clean, attend to people … and train,” he continues. “The award for the medal is 75,000 euros, but 45% goes to the Treasury. You don’t become a millionaire, and they also pay you overdue years. I spent much more than those 37,500 euros last year traveling and training, with my team: gunsmith, mental coach, physical preparation, coach … And that’s not counting gun and cartridges, which sponsor me. A shotgun costs 12,000 euros and a season in cartridges you go to 20,000 euros, “he explains. The ADO scholarships, previously fixed for a full cycle, must now also be endorsed with results.”There is a quarry, but more investment is needed. A shooting medal counts as much for the medal table as for any other discipline, “he recalls.
But the satisfaction of the gold that had been chasing three Games makes up for almost everything. “I always wear my promise and my prize for major competitions. I said I would get the medal tattooed on my promise … and I don’t like tattoos. I was screwed for a week (he says showing his arm)! As a prize I bought a guitar, a Japanese Fender Telecaster which I have named Tokyo. I’m thirteen or fourteen already … “, says the man from Madrid, who is also a guitarist of The Geipermans, the official tribute group to Men G in Spain. From October 19 to 24, rock & roll returns with the World Cup finals in Cyprus. There it will be time to point to another gold.