Sunday, February 19, 2023, 2:37 p.m.
Gernika Winter Series could not have ended in a better way. The final, from strength to strength, lasted 98 minutes, there were 580 hits by balls and in a last joko of heart attack Beaskoetxea-López prevailed over Barandika-Lekerika, who could not confirm the comeback. The match, very tough, had two well-marked jokos for each couple. Beaskoetxea and López clearly dominated the first (15-8), but the pair from Gernika reacted in time to take the final to a tiebreaker (9-15).
Although during the final there were more hits than misses, in the last joko it was clear what was at stake. The veterans missed less, hit one more ball and it was López who, with a marvelous cut, settled the final for him and for Beaskoetxea, who also played his last match as a professional puntista on a morning full of emotion. The striker, born in Miami but raised in Gernika, could not have put a better finishing touch to a brilliant career of more than twenty years. “I can’t ask for more, it’s the dream farewell.”
The show was guaranteed on the field since the final was entertaining, with alternatives and a lot of rallying, but in the stands the public responded again. The Gernika fronton, like every Monday, was too small to witness the final of the Gernika Winter Series. A new fill with 2,000 balls show that the basket is picking up. “We are born to work,” López did not stop repeating to his striker, knowing that his partner was saying agur to a more than respectable career. “Today work pays,” insisted the Zumaiarra. And so much. A pity that there were only two txapelas and not four.