Sagunto honours Diverse Scooter Team for national championship success
Four athletes from Sagunto's Diverse Scooter Team club — Alicia Carrasquer, Aarón Cobo, Eric Miñana and Israel García — received a municipal tribute after reaching the podium at the Spanish Street Championship in Montmeló.
Eleven skaters from Sagunto's Diverse Scooter Team club competed last weekend at the Spanish Street Championship, held at the Montmeló circuit in Catalonia, and four of them came home with results the club itself calls historic. That collective achievement — Diverse Scooter Team sent more athletes to the national event than any other club, through regional qualifiers — is what brought the four athletes to Sagunto's plenary hall this Thursday for an official tribute.
Four names stood out on the podium. Alicia Carrasquer took silver in the junior category, cementing her place as one of the city's leading figures in women's skating. Aarón Cobo, who had led much of the overall standings, also finished with silver. Israel García produced one of the championship's most striking comebacks, climbing nine places from a poor start in the qualifying rounds to reach third on the podium. And Eric Miñana, making his debut in the junior category, also came away with the runner-up spot.
The results make Diverse Scooter Team the club with the most medals at this year's championship and mark its best-ever performance at a national event. For Eric Miñana, this isn't his first visit to the council chambers: he was already received there in 2024, after being crowned Spanish Scooter Freestyle champion.
Alongside the four athletes, the event was attended by mayor Darío Moreno, Sports Councillor Javier Timón, and Carlos López, the club's president and coach. Moreno stressed that competing at national level in a still-minority sport takes extra dedication, crediting much of the credit to López for building what he described as a project where young people grow both as athletes and as people. The mayor called the four medallists ambassadors for the city and urged institutions, businesses and society at large to give more attention to a sport with limited media coverage, also thanking the families who support the athletes day to day.
Javier Timón, for his part, stressed that Montmeló produced the club's best-ever national numbers and that Diverse Scooter Team has become a genuine breeding ground for talent in Spanish skating. The councillor singled out Alicia Carrasquer as a role model for other girls interested in the sport, praised Eric Miñana's steady progress, and highlighted Aarón Cobo and Israel García's performances in the senior category.
Carlos López closed the speeches by thanking the council for the gesture and stressing how important this kind of recognition is for a sport that, he said, needs more visibility. The coach praised the effort of all four athletes and dwelt in particular on Eric Miñana's silver medal in the senior category, which he said carried even more merit than his two previous golds given the level of competition he faced. López left convinced the team will keep adding titles in the coming seasons.
Tributes like this are a regular practice for the council, which typically recognises local athletes who excel outside Sagunto, regardless of discipline. In the case of freestyle scooter riding — a sport with little media coverage despite its growing youth base — such events help the city get to know athletes capable of holding their own against the country's most established clubs.
Sagunto has built up a growing list of similar tributes to local athletes in minority sports in recent years, a municipal strategy aimed at giving visibility to the city's talent beyond the sports that usually get the most media coverage. The emergence of a new generation of Sagunto skaters capable of competing at the highest national level reinforces that approach and opens the door for the council to keep adding recognitions like this one in the years ahead.
According to Sagunto City Council.