Ana María Penas Balchada ( Spanish: Ana María Penas Balchada ; December 21, 1971 , Pontevedra ) - the Spanish kayak-kayaker , played for the Spanish national team in the period 1992-2001. Participant of the three summer Olympic Games, silver and bronze medalist of the World and European Championships, winner of many regattas of national and international importance.
| Ana Maria Penas | |
|---|---|
| personal information | |
| Floor | |
| A country |  Spain |
| Specialization | kayak , 500 m |
| Club | Naval Pontevedra |
| Date of Birth | December 21, 1971 (aged 47) |
| Place of Birth | Pontevedra , Spain |
| Growth | 166 cm |
| Weight | 68 kg |
Biography
Ana Maria Penas was born on December 21, 1971 in the city of Pontevedra . She began to actively engage in kayaking from early childhood, was trained at the local sports club "Naval".
Thanks to a series of successful performances, she was awarded the right to defend the country's honor at the 1992 Summer Home Olympic Games in Barcelona - she managed to reach the semi-finals only four and five hundred meters away, where she finished fourth. Four years later, she selected for the Olympic Games in Atlanta - in a half-kilometer four-piece kayak, she successfully reached the final and placed in the final protocol on the sixth line, not reaching the prize positions a little.
Penas achieved her first serious success at the international adult level in 1997, when she joined the main team of the Spanish national team and attended the resumed European Championship in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where she went up twice on the podium, receiving silver and bronze medals in the classification of four-seater kayaks at 200 distances and 500 meters respectively. Also this season, she performed at the World Championships in Canadian Dartmouth, from where she brought a bronze dignity award, won among four-seater crews at five hundred meters. A year later, at the world championship in Hungarian Szeged, she again took bronze in this discipline. At the 1999 European Championships in the Croatian Zagreb, she added another bronze medal in fours at five hundred meters to the track record.
In 2000, at the European Championships in Poznan, Poland, Penas twice climbed the podium, became a bronze medalist in such disciplines as K-4,200 m and K-4,500 m. Being one of the leaders of the Spanish rowing team, she successfully qualified for the Olympic Games in Sydney - in fours at five hundred meters, took eighth place in the final race.
After the Sydney Olympics, Ana Maria Penas remained for some time in the main team of the Spanish national team and continued to take part in major international regattas. So, in 2001, she performed at the European Championship in Milan, where in four she became a silver medalist at two hundred meters and a bronze medalist at five hundred meters. In addition, she achieved the same results at the world championship in Poznan, having received silver and bronze in the same disciplines. Soon after the end of these competitions, she decided to end the career of a professional athlete, losing her place in the national team to young Spanish rowers.
Links
- Ana Maria Penas - Olympic stats on Sports-Reference.com
- Ana Maria Penas - medals at major international competitions
- Lists of kayaking and canoeing champions and prize winners (1936-2007 )