Diana Dánae Rodríguez Cruz, judoka from Xalapeña, is focused on working to get the ticket that will place her in the 2022 Conade National Games, training with the renowned teacher and national champion in Judo, Julián Gutiérrez Palma at the Xallapan Club.
The athlete knows that she has a complicated customs, however, she is doing the work required to give her the correct tools to achieve her goals, which are: to achieve the state medal and the pass to the national team.
Dánae is 18 years old and has practiced judo for 8 years. She is also studying Educational Experience in Chemical Engineering at the Universidad Veracruzana and is a National Olympiad medalist.
From the Xallapan Dojo, he talks about how he started in Judo, his achievements as an athlete and the positives that practicing sport left him.
“I started the sport, because my dad is a faithful believer that we should practice any discipline. At the beginning it was far from the idea of competing, more than anything to develop ourselves in some sport, move a little and for health, but I began to like it and here I am competing. Now I am a national bronze medalist and a competitor in national tournaments,” she says.
After practicing for 8 years, the daughter of Dioni Cruz Lara and Óscar Daniel Rodríguez de la Rosa, points out that thanks to judo she has developed “mainly as a person, regardless of everything I have learned, which is technique, acquiring strength and maintaining an appropriate state of health, I feel that I have developed with values”, he comments.
And he adds: “If I had never entered judo, the person I am today would be completely different, because I have become more disciplined, I have gained more courage for many things, I function very well in other environments and it is all thanks to this”, indicates Danae.
Likewise, she says that when it comes to reaching her goal as a competitor, she focuses on progress and that if she doesn’t get the expected result in an event, “I train and update my thoughts waiting for a better result in the next one. If I am still far from the goal, I train harder, the idea is to continue persevering, because I always focus on progress, because whenever I achieve it, no matter how small, I celebrate it to the fullest”.
Regarding the ticket she won to be among the 40 qualified who will seek a pass to the national event, she says she is excited with the result, because “it gives me the opportunity to continue competing and gain experience in high-level battles where I will not only seek classification, but also the medal”, he assures.
She details that to get to the regional one, she does work inside and outside the tatami, that is, in the dojo she is one hundred percent concentrated, “to
have a cool mentality and off the mat, I try to do weights, even as they say, train in the kitchen to take care of nutrition and not have problems with weighing and performing in training, as well as on a day-to-day basis, because I want to be in Conade National Games and for that I am working hard”, he shares.
Future plans
The judoka is close to the stage of the National Universiade and although for now she is in another area, the Xalapan, she has it in mind.
“After the National Games, where I hope to be, I will enter the National Universiade stage, which will still be a challenge, because it is something new for me. I have never participated in one, except for the semester I am studying, however, at the end of the day, in a competition that is about giving everything”.
She talks that as a competitor she has in mind to participate in events such as Central American, Pan American or the Olympic Games, however now she is “focused on taking step by step, in some way I feel that it is prudent to stagger my achievements and my goals and go in the short term. First of all, at some point it cost me the State, now it was not so complicated, then go to the qualifying round, the Olympics and continue with small steps, but more efficient”.
Thank you for your family’s support
She knows that although she is the main one to achieve her goals, support is fundamental: “Without a doubt, I thank my parents who have supported me in everything that has been sport and in everything that gives me an opportunity, my coach who He is looking out for us, my nutritionist, my brother, Óscar Olaf Rodríguez Cruz, my family, as well as my colleagues who, despite being an individual sport, do this as a team.”
“I wish many women and men would practice judo, they can do it in our Dojo Xallapan, because without a doubt sport and judo are fundamental tools in everyone’s life, first of all for health and in some way it gives you very nice experiences as a competitor, regardless that one knows places, people and develops oneself, develops mental and psychomotor capacities and without a doubt, it is enjoyed at the end of the day, once they enter the sport they live to the fullest”, he concludes.
