KEVIN MARTÍNEZ: “I’M THE PALETA FRONTON AMBASSADOR AND I'M GOING FOR GOLD AT LIMA 2019”

With seven consecutive national championships and the confidence that those championships have given him, Kevin Martínez—Peruvian representative of the paleta fronton discipline—assured that he is going for the gold medal at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games.

“My grandfather and uncles played paleta fronton competitively. It was a family weekend plan to go and watch them play, compete in finals and win them. (...) I also got onto the court to play between matches,” he said, talking about his beginnings in this 100% Peruvian sports discipline.

He added that, when he was nine, they enrolled him in his first national tournament. “They (My family) thought they were going to intimidate my opponent, but they intimidated me instead and I lost the match,” he said as an anecdote.

He added that the real lesson of the anecdote was that, if he wanted to be as good as or better than his grandfather and uncles, he had to be tenacious and passionate about what he wanted. Now he is 27 and he has not stopped playing fronton any year.

“At the age of 16, I knew I'd do this for a living and become an ambassador for Paleta fronton. No matter what your sport, business, career or dream is, you can't stop until you've made it,” he emphasized.

NO OVERCONFIDENCE

Even though Kevin Martínez earned his place at Lima 2019 in the November 2018 qualifiers without losing any set, he is not over-confident and respects his next opponents.

“Argentina, Mexico, Cuba and United States are the five countries that qualified out of more than 10 countries. I won after playing against great opponents. They are the best Basque pelota players, and paleta fronton is one of its categories. They will fight to get the medals,” he said.

He confided that there is extra pressure for him to win the gold medal because paleta fronton is a Peruvian sport, but he believes he has a very good chance to get the gold.

“You can dream, but if you don’t train to win, it'll be hard to achieve it. I want to take paleta fronton around the world and I'm trying to find a way to promote it,” he said while asking fans to root for him from the stands to reach Pan American glory.

He invited the public to buy their tickets on the Pan American and Parapan American Games website: lima2019.pe/tickets or on the Teleticket website.

Tickets for Lima 2019 competitions can be purchased at the 11 points of sale set up at Jockey Plaza shopping center in Santiago de Surco and Metro and Wong supermarkets in Chorrillos, Independencia, La Molina, Lima, Miraflores, San Borja, San Isidro, San Juan de Miraflores, San Miguel and Surco.