19th October, 2001. Mexicali, B.C., Mexico

Eduardo Carmona has pressure from Televisa
The will watch worlds on the television
Denisse López and Sergio Quintero will not attend the World Championships in Belgium
By Carlos A. Martínez Robles
"The Mexican Federation decided that it will participate at Worlds, but we, in face of the circumstances, decided that neither Sergio nor Denisse will go", said the coach of the national team Eduardo Carmona Valenzuela.
The Artistic Gymnastics World Championships will take place in Belgium from the 28th of October to the 4th of November, but due to the international war events, Carmona Valenzuela and the Mexicali gymnasts decided not to attend, in spite of the pressure that media like Televisa put on them.
The national coach argued that they don't feel there are conditions for security, both physical and emotional.
"We decided to follow the recommendations... besides having direct contact with the Mexican Gymnastics Federation, the Mexican Olympic Committee and the CONADE; and all of them recommended us not to attend".
He said that since the first time the topic was discussed, his position was always the same "either there are guaranties or we don't go".
Carmona Valenzuela never felt security, which was shown by a document that the Federation asked the athletes to sign, in which the directives reject all responsibility.
The Mexican television chain Televisa bought the rights to retransmit the Gymnastics World Championships, so they put pressure on the Federation so it would participate with their best athletes.
Eduardo Carmona admited this fact, but he added that this did not change their decision.
Concerning the gymnasts, he said that "in Sergio's case, he is an athlete who's only starting and will have a lot of oportunities if we know how to direct his career; in Denisse's case, she's a consolidated figure that will not be affected".