He had hoped for another exit. Cesta punta legend Éric Irastorza, injured on Thursday, was deprived of a last final at home in Biarritz for his final Basque pelota world championships, at the age of 46. “I had been preparing for this World Cup for a year, so getting injured like that, in the semi-finals, is hard“, concedes the 1.94 m athlete, his eternal cap screwed on his head.
Thursday evening, on the jai alai in Biarritz, his “calf droppedagainst Spain. His teammate also injured, only one substitute was allowed to end the game, one against two. The Spaniards logically imposed themselves. “I was told, to reassure me, that Usain Bolt (athletics superstar, editor’s note) also ended his career with an injury. It’s true that it relieved me a little», smiles the «puntista» amer.
The kid from Bidart, on the Basque coast, started the cesta punta, this discipline of Basque pelota which is played with a wicker glove, “with all his school friendsat ten years old on the pediment of the village. It leaves the mark of one ofyou pointed“the most gifted of his generation, “even all the time“, according to Pierre Etchalus, with whom he was crowned world champion in 2000, in Guernica. His first professional world title, to which will be added those of 2006, 2007 and 2008.
L’eldorado in Florida
Éric Irastorza was only 16 when he was offered his first professional contract, in Florida, the eldorado of cesta punta. “Too young“, say his parents. He finished his studies and moved to Florida four years later, in 1999.I had told my parents that if in the first year, I was not in the top five, I would return“recalls the Basque, landed without speaking a word of English or Spanish.
He won his first tournament after three months and remained in Miami for 20 years. The ball, he “ate it every day», sans «never get tired of it“. The cesta punta broke through in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. The jai alai filled, attached to casinos, and the money from the bets then made young Basques dream. “We became winning machines, in the United States, cesta was 100% business“Explains Éric Irastorza, who arrived with a second wave of Basque players.
Two titanium hips
The school is hard, but the one who always “wanted to be the N.1wouldn’t have wished for anything else. Even though he was in Connecticut, “so 2,000 kilometers from Florida», Laurent Sorozabal, former professional player, remembers the arrival of the young prodigy in the United States. “We quickly saw that he had established himself in Miami as the best back of the time.»
After 19 seasons in Florida, Eric Irastorza played three years in Mexico, before returning to the Basque Country. “Exceptional size, lively and flexible, unequaled power/technique ratio“, describes his former partner Pierre Etchalus. “It’s my forehand and my dexterity that made me win a lot“, Analyzes Irastorza, who won ten Golden Gloves from Biarritz, nine Internationals from Saint-Jean-de-Luz and was number one rear of the Miami fronton from 1999 to 2009.
All without major injury. Today, the puntist has two titanium hips, the result of a sport of rotations and supports that wear out the body. The cesta punta, it has declined in the United States, competed by casinos, slot machines and other bets of all kinds. The last professional jai alai closed last year in Florida. The American dream no longer exists for the “to the ball» («pelota playersin Basque). To replace him, Eric Irastorza would like to create an international circuit, with professional players, “that would make young people dream again».