THE NEW DAILY, SANTO DOMINGO.- The Dominican judo team is making every effort to prepare to achieve its best performance in an Olympic Cycle.
The judokas, who maintain a high pace of training in the sport’s pavilion at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center, are looking for their first Olympic medal in Paris 2024. Dominican judo for the first time at the 1972 Munich Olympics and has not yet managed to climb a podium in an event of this magnitude.
This was stated by Ana Rosa, winner of the gold medal at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games, after a training session with the Creole team in the judo pavilion, located at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center.
Rosa added that “the first step to have good results is to prepare the mind”, while highlighting the work carried out by the coaches of the Dominican Judo Federation (Fedojudo) with the athletes of that sport.
“Mentally we are ready. Overcoming the pressure of a few games is the first step to victory. We continue to prepare ourselves physically for this new Olympic Cycle,” Rosa said in one of the visits made by the technical direction of the Dominican Olympic Committee to the sports federations.
The judo team plans to leave for Lima, Peru, to compete in a Pan American Championship that will take place on April 16.
Subsequently, the judokas have the commitment to act in the Bolivarian Games, which will be held in Valledupar, Colombia, as well as the first Caribbean Games, which will take place in Guadalupe.
Estefanía Soriano, also a gold medalist at the last Pan American Games in Lima, indicated that all the members of the group have their sights set on the top of the podium in the upcoming international events.
“The preparation of the team is at its peak. In particular, my intention is to represent the Dominican Republic with dignity and to be in first place,” said Soriano.
Dominican judo won a total of eight medals at the Junior Pan American Games, held in Cali, Colombia, at the end of last year.
That sport contributed the largest number of medals to the Dominican delegation in the youth fair.
The mixture of young talent with experience on the part of the judo team makes a fundamental and interesting contrast in the team.
This was confirmed by his coach, Lázaro Lazos, during a visit by the COD technical department to Fedojudo last Wednesday morning.
The visit was attended by Juan Febles Dalmasí, technical director of the COD; the technical director of Fedojudo, Leidi Germán, and Miguel Merejo, technical manager of that sport, among other technicians.
