3-Cushion
The era in which young talents in the three cushion have to develop on national and international level has been disrupted by the COVID-19 crisis. How do they deal with this setback in their careers? Kozoom had interviews with young billiard players all over the world and this week completes the series of 12 articles. Today: Ivan Mayor Lara (20) from Spain
Name: Ivan Mayor Lara Ivan Mayor Lara
Age: 20
Residence: Sports training centre/boarding school (CAR Infanta Cristina, Los Alcázares), Murcia
Profession/study: Studying business and management
Hobbies: Cycling, fitness
Relationship: single
Billiard club: Castalla Billiard Club (Caseta Nova)
Sponsor: DS Billiards
Kozoom/Frits Bakker: How are you coping with this long period of COVID crisis?
Ivan Mayor: My life is very much about billiards, so it has been a very difficult year for all of us. I spend a lot of time on my sport every day and it was hard to stop suddenly, after having played matches almost every week. However, I now realised how much I can appreciate the privileged situation I was in before the pandemic. And on the other hand, I have been able to spend much more time with my family, as otherwise, under normal circumstances, I would be big part of the year in the Sports Centre and boarding school. So hardly time to see them. In short, I am sure that I will come out of this worldwide nightmare stronger, with much more strength.
2. Kozoom: Is it a time of standstill an stagnation in your young career, when rapid progression is so important?
Ivan Mayor: The pandemic taught me that despite postponing all competitions, I could not stop my training. Then, I would have lost the form I had built up before. I continued training as if nothing had happened. Although, I must admit that it was difficult to find the motivation to keep training at the highest level. It has been a period of reflection and analysis regarding other important aspects of billiards, which under normal circumstances are not given the importance they deserve.
3. Kozoom: What is the current situation in your home town and your country in relation to COVID-19?
Ivan Mayor: At the moment in Spain the situation is very complicated, because vaccination is much slower than expected. The constant increase in the number of Corona infections is again getting the country in its grip. This has forced very hard measures, such as the closure of sports facilities and the cancellation of all kinds of competitions at national level, which directly affects billiards and my life as a sportsman. Fortunately, for the fourth year in a row, I am part of the Spanish billiard team in Infanta Cristina, near Murcia, where I live internally, so I can train and study every day. The centre for top-level sport remains open for us despite the alarming health situation. This is a great advantage in my development both in sport and in my academic career.
4. Kozoom: How are the conditions for training?
Ivan Mayor: Thanks to my internship in the high performance centre, I can practice under perfect conditions together with my teammates, often including David Zapata, who is in Korea now, and Carlos Anguita. We can train in an exclusive room with 8 match tables and with the personal trainer of the Spanish billiard federation RFEB, Jose Antonio Carrasco. This allows me to develop my daily training sessions, which normally last 4 to 5 hours a day, 7 days a week, with the possibility to extend them during the weekend. Without a doubt, this is a privileged situation for me and other players.
5. Kozoom: What does your life look like without championships, tournaments and competitions?
Ivan Mayor: I am worried about the cancellation of all junior competitions at international level. That is a big disadvantage for me and all my fellow juniors, as I have lost a year of my sporting career and I have not been able to show how we prepared for the tournaments. That bothers me a lot, because there are many hours of work and enthusiasm behind each of these competitions. I really hope that the same thing will not happen again this year and that in the future the lost matches can be made up somehow.
6. Kozoom: What can you tell us about your country and federation, is everything done to develop young talents in three cushion?
Ivan Mayor: I am very proud to be part of the RFEB junior selection, because the federation has shown for years that they work hard to bring out great players and talents in three cushion. That is a mission led by Jose María Quetglas and Jose Antonio Carrasco, the official coaches of the federation and of CAR Infanta Cristina. They continue to work hard to practice and develop new, high-performing players in the wake of Zapata, Martínez, Legazpi, Montes, Palazón, Ortiz or Anguita. They have all been trained with the same technical programmes created and developed by the coaches. Thanks to them, Spain is a great European and world power in billiards.
7. Kozoom: How do you see your future as a sportsman and possibly as a professional billiard player?
Ivan Mayor: Right now, I am working very hard and constantly to achieve my main short-term goals, I think that will make me grow as a billiard player little by little and gradually gain experience and maturity. I have loved this sport since I was very young and in the future I would love to be able to dedicate myself professionally to billiards and use everything I learned during all these years of grassroots measuring myself against the best players in the world. I also have the honor of being able to train with David Zapata, David Martínez or Carlos Anguita, also with Javier Palazón on occasion, colleagues and friends who have passed where I am now and today they are still in direct relationship with the CAR and its programs of training. That thanks to this and their own merits, they have been given the possibility of being a professional billiard player through the PBA. For me they are all an example to follow and at the same time of improvement and motivation, knowing that thanks to continuous work they have obtained their fruits. It would be a dream for me to be part of professional billiards in the not too distant future and why not share that incredible experience with them.
Ivan Mayor on the international stage, one of the new young Spanish talents
