Goodbye to the Balloon World Cup: Peruvian Francesco De la Cruz got injured and could not prevent defeat.

In 2021, Peruvian Francesco De la Cruz was crowned champion of the first edition of the World Balloon Championship, and for this year, the national representative went to Spain with the dream of defending his title. However, things didn't turn out as expected.

De la Cruz did not have the best of performances and lost 3-0 to the Canadian Monte Doebel-Hickok. In the match, the Peruvian suffered a couple of falls, but the last one forced him to not continue when there were a few seconds left in the confrontation.

"Francesco has injured himself. He's giving everything for Peru, but he can't go on", expressed Ibai Llanos while De la Cruz was being attended to by the referee and before medical attention arrived.

In this way, the Peruvian's participation ended in his first match, thus ending his chances of becoming champion for the second consecutive year. The Canadian, on the other hand, faced Argentine Lautaro Maqueda in the quarterfinals.

How much would the champion of the 2022 World Balloon Championship win?

According to information from the newspaper Marca, the winner of the curious competition organized by streamer Ibai Llanos and soccer player Gerard Piqué would receive a total of 10,000 euros, based on the "prizes from the previous edition."