By Catalina Pace – El Tiempo Special
Focusing on this discipline and with the intensity it contains, Gerónimo Dhereté from Azul has won many competitions, but he trains every day to achieve other good results and dedication.
“Gero” has loved swimming since he was a child and has devoted himself to this sport. However, as he himself said: “One summer they gave us a lot of time off and I focused on continuing to train and I didn’t want to stop. There was a date for a triathlon and I wanted to go with “I started running and I liked It, from that moment on I started singing “Tría”. ”
Since then, he has continued to maintain this discipline and devote a lot of time to his daily life. For example, he currently trains 20 to 25 hours a week under the supervision of coach Mario De Elias. You can see it multiple times in meetings, but if you can’t do that, you can manage it through a platform where you can find documentation of what you want to do on a daily basis.
This is how he prepares for different games. It competes in provincial, national and South American races, where each stage has different kilometers, depending on the type of championship. At the end of each year or the beginning of the next year, a competition calendar is uploaded, and depending on each competitor’s ranking, you may or may not score points. In other words, whether you can run or not depends on where you are at the time and the number of players. “For example, if a tournament has 65 spots and you’re ranked 66th, if everyone at the top is signed up for that tournament, you’ll be excluded,” Dhereté said.
Currently, Gerónimo ranks around 400 globally and around 100 on the African continent. As I mentioned before, these numbers have allowed him to compete in several triathlons. He has competed in those shorter programmes, now moving to a new format which he believes will be more entertaining and attractive to the public; as well as Olympic distances including the 1500m swim, 40km bike and 10km . walk. In addition, there are what athletes call “long distance”, which is swimming 4 kilometers, cycling 180 kilometers and running 42 kilometers.
One of the most important races that the man from Azulejo could compete in was the Ironman 5150, where he took first place after running the Olympic distance. This is a prestigious sporting event in Argentina, held on Lake Palermo in the municipality of Buenos Aires. However, he also participated in several of these games and achieved good results. For example, in Mar del Plata he has won many times and been on the podium many times and it is one of his favorite places in our country to run in the scenery.
Other circuits that impressed him were those in Spain, where he lived from May to the end of July. In this sense, “Gero” explains: “I was offered a club going into their season. The opportunity came up and I took it, I was in a city like Azul, with a little more inhabitants but quiet .”
-What do you think are the differences between sporting life in Spain and Argentina?
-Here I compete as an individual although I represent my country in the league, but there I compete for a club against a team. The club can earn a certain amount of points based on how each person ranks in the competition. Later I found that the level difference was very big, it was very interesting, and I learned a lot every time I competed.
It should be noted that during this experience in which he was so interested, the club and the Spanish Football Federation borne some of the costs, but not all, especially those associated with each game. Sometimes they pay for transportation to each game as well as tournament fees (from which they receive monetary rewards from time to time).
In this sense, understand that triathlon is an expensive sport. In Argentina, in his case, he did so in the few tournaments he attended because he was invited and there was no entry fee, although he did have to pay other expenses with the support of his family. In addition, at this time, he also received the help of the National Sports Secretariat and the Municipality of Buenos Aires, receiving the Jorge Newbery Prize, a study scholarship, and becoming part of the city’s selection.
He has also trained with the Argentine national team many times. His last call was in preparation for the South American Games, which he was unable to represent, but he continued to train in the hope of achieving that goal at another time. One of its goals is to defend our country’s colors at some of the most prestigious international competitions, such as the Olympics, Pan American Games or South American Games.
In any case, triathlon is not the only thing he works on every day, as Geronimo is in his fourth year studying for a degree in kinesiology at the University of El Salvador. As he himself pointed out, there is a lot of time to deal with both situations and must be balanced.
-How do you organize yourself between studying and training or competing?
-There are some subjects that, depending on how long I have studied them, I will do or leave until next year. If I can do them all, even better, but if not, I’ll try to analyze which ones are best for me to follow. I try to keep everything organized, although it can get a little chaotic during midterms or finals. In those moments, I prioritize based on my goals.
-You have to keep your mind focused on the current situation. As far as Tria goes, how do you stay focused throughout the game? What do you think is the most psychologically complex situation?
-This is something that needs to be done every day. I think it’s difficult when you’re at the top of a race and you don’t know where second place is and vice versa. For example, swimming gets complicated where you get pineapples, kicks, water entering you, and depending on how you get out of there, it can roughly dictate how the race will continue.
-How do you feel after each game?
– Sometimes you are very satisfied with the good results, sometimes you are not so satisfied. Beyond that, no matter how it went, I knew I had to keep training the next day.
-How important a role does your family play in each career?
-I’m very happy that they came to see me, and I’m grateful to them. Additionally, I know that without their support I would not be able to compete, also financially, as some competitions are very expensive. We understand how to have a great season with as little money as possible.
-Finally, after competing for such a long time and completing several triathlons, what are your thoughts on Gerónimo Dhereté’s start in the sport?
-I want to tell you that you still have a lot of room for improvement, and I thank you for not giving up.