From 3 to 5 hours of training a day, 7 days a week all year. This is the “recipe” that Paulo Murta, coach Oriental Pechão Club, has "cooked" for Ana Cabecinha, the most important walker of today's Portugal, and wishes to continue to apply, to raise many other promising youngsters who train at the club.

Basically, everything goes through the effort and dedication, something that Ana Cabecinha demonstrated since she started training at the age of 11 years.

"In sport, there is no luck, only work. And we work hard to get lucky. There are many weeks, many hours a week, many kilometers. Ana work is about 7000 kilometers per year between walking and running. She trains very close to 50 weeks per year and has an average of 13 training sessions per week. She is a professional athlete" explained Paulo Murta.

To obtain the Olympic sixth place, Ana Cabecinha has had to be on her mattle, face some setbacks and even suffering, but no regrets. "For me, the balance of these last four years can only be positive. A lot has changed, we started to work differently and the results are obvious. We were finalists at the World’s and European Championships, I was 4th in the World in 2015, and 6th in 2016" she summarized the athlete.

"This Olympic cycle was different from previous (Beijing 2008 and London 2012). After London, we thought that after maturity and years of practice Ana could train in a totally different way. We have evolved both in the same training exercise, including the creation of a multidisciplinary team that worked with us, something that until then existed little or nothing.

It was noted in the results. Since 2012, only a few races in which Ana was not in the top 10. In most of them always came in the top eight, which is considered one of the finalists" are the words of Paul Murta.

For many, seeing a player from a small club from a village of Olhão achieve these results at the Olympics, may seem strange. But for the idea of Ana Cabecinha and her coach, that does not come in terms of financial return (which would be possible through the binding of a large club) is balanced by the involvement and support that comes from those who are closest.

"I had been proposed over the years to go to FC Porto, Sporting and Benfica. I always refused. The Pechão is the club I love and I feel that far with it I would not have the same support I need" said Ana Cabecinha.

In this environment Ana Cabecinha will try to prepare the best way for the 2020 Olympics, which believes it can get a medal she want "more than anything else".