A total of seven Navarran sportsmen will be representing Spain in London for this year’s Olympic Games.



Three of the seven were looking to emulate Spain’s success in Ukraine and Poland, where Spain won the European Championships, as they went looking for gold with the Olympic football team. 



However, in what came as a shock to the footballing world, the young hopefuls crashed out after losing their two opening games to supposedly far inferior opposition.



Javi Martínez and Iker Muniain both play for Athletic Bilbao, while César Azpilicueta currently plays for Marseille.  Their opening game against Japan the day before the opening ceremony did not give them the start they hoped for, losing 1-0 to a well-drilled Japanese team.



It was the first time Japan had ever beaten Spain at any level, and not long after conceding the goal in the first half the Spaniards were down to ten men after Iñigo Martinez was sent off for a professional foul, and facing a real uphill struggle.



Then Los Rojos lost in controversial fashion to Honduras, after they took the lead on the 6th minute.  The young Spaniards displayed some of the frustration of their senior counterparts by dominating midfield but finding it difficult to break the opposition's defence.  



Spain were denied two clear penalties by the referee in what topped off a disappointing tournament for the much vaunted young team, which contained senior World Cup winners Juan Mata, Jordi Alba and Cristian Tello, plus Manchester United's first choice goalkeeper David de Gea.



Navarra is also represented by two players in the handball team, Eduardo Gurbindo and Andrea Barnó.  The handball team took bronze in last year’s World Cup in Switzerland, and will be looking for an improved finish this year, despite drawing a tough group in the qualifying stages:



‘You can’t have worse luck than this,’ said the men’s coach Valero Rivero after the draw took place. ‘It has been very difficult on us, and the way the groups are distributed is totally uneven.’



Indoor cycling is the third and final sport being represented by Navarrans this year, with Hodei Mazkiaran and Juan Peralta aiming to follow their fellow Navarran Miguel Indurain into the cycling history books.