Maria Vicente not only breaks records, she breaks them in record time! The irrepressible new star of Spanish athletics stormed in to win this weekend’s European under 20’s Championships in Boras, Sweden. It will therefore come as no surprise that she has also become the latest—and youngest—member of the Richard Mille family.Sprinting through the impressively long list of titles and trophies the young Catalan has already notched up, you have to keep reminding yourself that Maria is—still—a mere 18 years old! She is already, and by a long stretch, Spain’s best-ever female heptathlete, having broken no less than 53 Spanish records and being crowned World Champion Under 18 Heptathlon (in 2017) before striking Gold at last year’s European U-18 Championships, not to mention finding time to bring home the World Record U-18 Heptathlon.This weekend’s Gold at Boras was achieved in typically spectacular fashion. Not only did she surpass the rest of the field, but above all, she tore up her own personal bests. Maria went into the final event knowing she had already outperformed herself in javelin, throwing 44.18 metres, a lengthy 5 metres further than her previous best. Everything was on the line in the 800 metres, which took place in the pouring rain. As the starting gun fired, Maria knew she would have to turn in the run of her life and knock several decimal points off a time of 2.24:79. Not only did she beat the required performance, she smashed it by six whole seconds, coming in at a breath-taking 2.16:29 and becoming the first ever Spanish woman to exceed 6,000 points, topping the heptathlon podium at a dizzying 6150.No wonder she won Spain’s coveted ‘most promising young athlete award’ at a prestigious gala evening last January in Madrid, a trophy she received from King Felipe himself. No wonder, too, that she was the standard bearer for the Spanish team at the Opening Ceremony of the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in October last year. Now standing 1.80 metres, ideal for an athlete, Maria first began to understand the strength and power of her own body via dance lessons. With her strong determination to prove herself, Maria’s philosophy gives a clue as to what drives her to jump so many hurdles, not least of all those she purposely sets for herself. Even if she wins, she is only truly happy if she crossed the line as regards her own targets.Having already won so much, Maria knows full well that people are expecting a lot more of her. Expectations of this kind are not pressure—she sees them as pure motivación! Conscious that what she has achieved so far is impressive, Maria warns that it is nothing compared to what comes next, intoning ‘you ain’t seen nothing yet,’ with a Catalan accent. No wonder, then, that Maria Vicente lines up in the starting blocks as a winning new addition to the Richard Mille family by wearing the RM 007 Titanium. ‘I am honored to be part of the Richard Mille family, who supported me from the first day of our relationship. The Richard Mille story is truly inspiring for everyone and I share the same motivation about aiming continuously for the best beyond any limits. This weekend was my first competition with a Richard Mille watch on my wrist. I never felt comfortable wearing a watch when competing, but the experience with this RM 007 Titanium could not have been better. I was not only wearing a beautiful and modern machine on my wrist, I also felt extremely comfortable with it.’ |
