Jeff fulfilled his promise to his country and crossed the finish line standing in the 50km 
GREECE, 01/09/2004. Our champion finished with his head held high, striding across the finish line in the 50Km competition this Friday, the 27th of August, in what was a great challenge for him and a source or happiness for his country, watching the tricolored flag being represesented by a true man, who never gave up in spite of the fatigue he felt as a result of the extenuating competition.
From the beginning Jeff was situated in the fourth group of athletes, always maintaining his good technique and a moderate pace, conserving his energy for the final kilometers, which he continued doing until kilometer 25. After that the champion began to reduce the distance with the groups of leaders, to the point of bettering his lap times by 15 seconds. In this way he began to improve his placement, passing his rivals one by one, advancing from 25 th to 20 th, and then to 15 th; in other words, in just a few laps he improved about 10 positions.
But it didn’t end there, and once again Jeff began to pressure his rivals, increasing the pace and climbing five more positions, situating himself in ninth place around the 40 kilometer mark. Once again the champion tried to reduce the distance to the leaders, to the point of positioning himself in seventh place at 46 kilometers just four kilometers from the finish. At that moment Jeff broke from the pain and was at the point of fainting. One of the members of his team even entered the course to support him and ask him to retire in view of the extreme conditions the athlete found himself in. Jeff, however, was determined to fulfill his promise to his country, which was to complete the competition standing. The last kilometers were an eternity. Several times he had to stop because of stomach problems that induced vomiting due to the physical stress he had undergone up to that point, which his rivals took advantage of to recover some places. Finally our champion entered the Olympic Stadium of Athens completely fatigued, buy happy to have given his best effort for the pride of a nation.
He finished 12th among 55 athletes, and the pride of a nation began to be heard on all the television and radio networks that narrated the competition from beginning to end, achieving the unity of 13 million happy Ecuadorians.
This is the gift that Jeff offered his country for all the demonstrations of support and the immense affection received during his trip to Athens.
THANKS JEFFERSON, FOR HAVING FULFILLED YOUR PROMISE TO AN ENTIRE NATION.
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