The double gift of sport to Girona

Marc Gasol and Cristhian Stuani celebrate the promotions to the highest category of the Girona basketball and football teams. David Borrat (EFE)

The feeling of community is one of the strongest bonds that sport produces.

Throughout a game, in the middle of a competition, we are able to put aside our differences to unreservedly support the same cause.

The team that has made you vibrate since you were a child, the colors that made your parents happy, the result that stops everyone around you.

In victory or defeat, even momentarily, it is a spell that unites many of us.

The city of Girona has experienced a barrage of great sports news in recent days, something that happens on rare occasions and that few cities can boast of.

Both its football team (Girona Fútbol Club) and basketball (Bàsquet Girona) achieved promotion to the first category of their respective disciplines, generating collective emotions difficult to imagine in another context.

The soccer team completed a feat from adversity.

The regulations for the promotion

, which eliminated penalty kicks in the event of a tie at the end of the tie, giving victory to the best-ranked team in the regular season, placed the Catalan club at a clear disadvantage.

As sixth in the league, any tied series meant elimination, goodbye to the dream of promotion.

He was the only one of the four applicants who started with an assured need: to score in the two qualifiers.

The team led by Míchel accepted the challenge, and ended up achieving promotion by winning the last match against Tenerife away from home.

Perhaps the situation of necessity forced the team to play bravely, with that character that makes the difference in professional sport.

The support of the fans, who protected their own from the first minute, found a prize dreamed of for years.

Basketball also delivered glory days with a particular story.

Founded in 2014, it is one of the youngest clubs in Spanish competitions.

Thanks to the great sports culture of the city, rising year after year, the feat has been enormous.

After a year in LEB Oro, a competitive category with many high-level teams, they have achieved an unforgettable promotion.

The victory against Estudiantes in the last game is already sports history in the city.

Among the club's ranks, the figure of Marc Gasol, world champion and winner of an NBA ring, stands out.

Admirably, he has been able to combine the basketball court with the offices.

His function goes beyond providing a great sporting level on the track, directing the team and making it evolve in parallel.

He is a person deeply committed to a club that he founded and that today he also chairs.

His continuity on the pitch for at least another year will make the story even more special.

The images of Girona dyed red were already in everyone's imagination.

The parade to honor the athletes of both teams, the coaching staff and all those who made success possible, was a huge collective party at a time when happiness is necessary.

Summer always brings good weather, longer days and a good mood in people.

If we add sports reasons to celebrate and enjoy with friends, the combination is great.

Anyone who was in Girona last weekend was able to experience a day that is difficult to forget.

Let us always value the ability of sport to give us these moments.

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