Pau Gasol visits Torrevieja

On Wednesday morning Torrevieja was visited by one of Spain’s most famous and revered athletes, Los Angeles Lakers basketball player Pau Gasol.

Standing seven foot tall, many heads were turned in disbelief by town centre shoppers as he made the short walk from the Town Hall to the Municipal Theatre and on to Real Club Nautico along with Mayor Eduardo Dolon, members of the council and selected guests.

At the Town Hall, Gasol was greeted by the President of the Diputación de Alicante Luisa Pastor, Torrevieja’s Mayor Eduardo Dolón, and the diputado de Turismo for Alicante, Joaquín Albaladejo, plus the entire Torrevieja council. After the formalities, the delegation visited the Teatro Municipal, where a capacity audience of eight and nine year old school children were participating in the series of educational concerts organized by the departments of Education and Culture. The children were totally taken by surprise and remained in awe of the superstar for the few minutes that he was on stage.

After visiting the Theatre the group continued to Real Club Nautico de Torrevieja (RCNT), to meet Club President Germain Soler, and the president of ALPE, Fina Sala where Gasol signed T-shirts which he presented to children of ALPE who suffer from various disabilities. Gasol met with and posed for photographs with all of the children along with torrevejense yachtsman Jesus Rogel, whose boat is sponsored by the Costa Blanca Tourist Board for participation in the Sailing World Cup. 31 year old Pau Gasol has won an NBA championship with the Lakers, and a silver medal with the Spanish basketball team at the 2008 Olympics and is gearing up for the 2012 Olympics in London along with his brother Marc, who also plays in the NBA for the Memphis Grizzlies.

Keith Nicol