Xavier Porras
Xavier Porras Santana is a Spanish paralympic sprinter and jumper who belongs to F.C. Barcelona and competes in the T11 / B1 category for blind athletes or athletes with a very reduced vision.
Since he debuted at 18 years old in the European of Lisbon, Xavi has always remained among the world elite. He has participated in three Paralympic Games, seven World Athletics Championships and seven European. He is also the indoor world record holder of the triple jump with a record of 12,77 m. In the triple jump, he has achieved his greatest success where he won two gold medals at The World Championships ; a bronze medal in the Paralympics and a gold medal in the European Greece 2009. Xavi won the title of Champion of Spain in the long jump with a mark of 5,82 m, while still preparing with his guide, Enric Martin, for the World Championships Doha 2015 and the Paralympic Games of Rio 2016, his two next challenges. Xavi Porras received the Bronze Medal of Merit Sports in 2016. The Sports Council has granted admission to athlete Xavi Porras in the Royal Order of Sports Merit "considering the merits and circumstances" in the category bronze medal. This is the highest accolade for the sport in Spain. In 2016, he was proclaimed European champion in the long jump with a mark of 6.14 meters in the Italian city of Grosseto.
Xavi Porras is part of the most prestigious platform for an athlete, crowdfunding, 'Patrocínalos', of the Marca Sport Newspaper
Biography
Porras spent his childhood shuffling between football, biking and skateboarding. From an early age, he was fascinated with physical exertion in general and football in particular. Thanks to the football club in his neighborhood, he had his first experience with competition. His vision problems started when he was very young; within one and a half years, he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative congenital disease.When he was fourteen, he joined ONCE and moved to the Center for Educational Resources Joan Amades in Barcelona, where in athletics he discovered extra motivation to live with his blindness, besides combining sport with his studies of Administrative Management.
In 2005, he signed for the athletics section of FC Barcelona with his partner Rosalía Lázaro being the first blind athletes in the history of the Catalan club. Xavi is also part of the ADOP plan, managed by the Spanish Paralympic Committee, being considered an athlete ARC by the Generalitat de Catalunya.
He is married to Rosalía Lázaro, who is the most decorated Spanish Paralympic athlete of all time in the long jump B2. She holds five Paralympic Games, counting three Paralympic medals, nine world championships and thirteen European championships. Xavi and Rosalia have a daughter together, Egara.
Sport Biography
His beginnings were inspired by the image of his idol, Carl Lewis, in the Olympic Games of Barcelona '92.A key moment was in 1998 when he met his coach, Miguel Angel Torralba, who introduced him to the practice of athletics. They have never separated as Miguel is the one who plans his workouts and guides Xavi on jumps using the voice. In addition to his coach, Xavi has had, throughout his career, four guides that have been his extension both in speed tests and training:
- Sergio Segón
- Antonio Delgado
- Raúl Sabaté
- Enric Martín
The successes of Xavi Porras are endorsed with big records whose personal bests are:
- World record of the Triple Jump Indoor – 12.77 m/ Gold in European 2006.
- Triple Jump Outdoor – 13.02 m that gave him gold in the Championships 2006.
- Length – 6.,31 m, minimum mark for Athens 2004
- 100 meters – 11.79s achieved in the semifinals of London 2012
Paralympic Games
Along with his guide Antonio Delgado, Xavi attended his first Paralympic Games, competing in three disciplines: 100m, 200m sprint and the long jump, finishing 9th in the long jump with a personal best in the 200 meters of 24.60 seconds. Four years later, he attended the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games, where the triple jump was confirmed to be his best discipline, to the detriment of the 200 m sprint. This change was providential because it enabled him to hang his first Paralympic medal, a bronze, with his eyes on the track at that time, his guide Raul Sabaté.In London 2012, he completed his third consecutive Games, participating in four disciplines and getting together with his current guide Enric Martín, two fifth places in the final triple jump and length as best records, and an eleventh place in the 100m which is his best so far and a record of Spain in the semifinals of the 4 × 100 m relay with a time of 43,26s.
IPC World Championship
His first participation was in Quebec 2003, achieving a fourth position in the long jump for best performance. Three years later, in Assen 2006, he was proclaimed the world champion in the triple jump with a mark of 13.02m, as well as obtained a bronze medal in length.That same season, he participated in the Indoor World Championships in Bollnas, proclaiming himself world champion in the triple jump with a mark of 12,77m, world record indoor category; besides winning two silver in the long jump and 60m.
After an injury which deprived him of competing at his level the following year at the World São Paulo Games, where he participated in the triple jump getting a creditable sixth position, Xavi Porras had to wait until the World Cup in Nueva Zelanda 2011, to become a champion of the long jump with a mark of 5.99m; while he was getting a new bronze medal as a member of the Spanish 4 × 100 relay team with Martín Parejo Maza, MaximilianoÓscar Rodríguez Magi and Gerard Descarrega Puigdevall with a mark of 45.45.
In Lyon, he came back to the podium with a bronze medal in the long jump, with 6,24 m.
Europe championships
His international debut came in a European Championship, obtaining, with his first guide, Sergio Segón, a creditable fourth position in the 100 meters, which reaffirmed his commitment to the sport, to the detriment of football, his passion as a child. But his international explosion came two years later, in the championship of Bialastok, where he was proclaimed runner-up in the 100 meters and the 4 × 100 relay.Two years later, in Assen 2003, he repeated his performance with two new bronze medals in the long jump and 4x100 respectively, becoming one of the best European sprinters and jumpers and endorsing his status in the championships of Espoo where, in addition to greatly improving his brand in length, he was proclaimed runner-up with a record of 6,19m and brushes the podium in the final of the 100 meters.
His next continental appointment was Rhodes, which added three more medals on a brilliant performance: gold in the triple jump, silver in length and bronze in the 100.
In his sixth appearance in a European Championships, Swansea, he returned to the podium getting his ninth continental medal, bronze in the long jump with a mark of 5,93m, which put the icing on the cake of a great 2014, when he won back the crown of Spain as a champion in the 100 meter sprint in 2012 and became a national runner-up in the long jump.
Medal Template
He competed in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece, the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China, where he was the third best athlete in the triple jump. He competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, where he finished fifth in the triple jump.Paralympics Games
London 2012- 8 September 2012, 100m semifinal, 11,79s
- 6 September 2012, Triple jump, 12,19m
- 5 September 2012, 4 × 100 m relay semifinal 43,26s / disqualified in the final
- 4 September 2012, Long jump, 6,08m,
- 15 September 2008, Long jump, 5,96m,
- 12 September 2008, Triple jump, 12,71m, Bronze medal
- 8 September 2008, 100m
- 23 September 2004, 200m, 24,61s
- 21 September 2004, 100m, 12,20s
- 19 September 2004, Long jump, 5,79m,
World Championship
World Championship in Lyon 2013- 07.27.2013, Long jump, 6,24m, Bronze medal
- 25 July 2013, 100m, 12,09s
- 24 July 2013, Triple jump, 12,32m
- 07.23.2013, 4 × 100 m Final, 45,00s,
- 29 January 2011, Long jump, 5,99m, Silver Medal
- 27 January 2011, 4 × 100 m relay final, 45,45s, Bronze medal
- 26 January 2011, Triple jump, 12,45m
- 22 January 2011, 100m, 12,15s
- Triple Jump, 11,60m
- 9 September 2006, Triple jump, 13,02m, Gold medal
- 6 September 2006, Long jump, 6,08m, Bronze medal
- 4 September 2006, 100m semifinals, 11,99s
- 7 May 2006, Long jump, 5,69m,
- 24 March 2006, Triple jump, 12,77m, Gold medal
- 25 March 2006, Long jump, 6,03m, Silver medal
- 24 March 2006, 60 meters 7,60s, Silver medal
- Long Jump
European Championships
European Championship in Grosseto 2016- 14 June 2016 Long jump, 6,14m, Gold medal
- 19 August 2014 Long jump, 5,93m, Bronze medal
- Triple jump 12,76m, Gold medal
- Long jump, 5,90m, Silver medal
- 100m, 11,90s, Bronze medal
- 26 August 2005, Long Jump, 6,19m, Silver medal
- 23 August 2005, 100m final, 12,24s,
- 22 August 2005, 100m semifinals, 12,05s
- Long jump, 6,06m, Bronze medal
- 4 × 100 m Relay, Bronze medal
- 100m, Silver Medal
- 4 × 100 m relay, Silver medal
- 200m
- 100m
- 200m, finalist