In a few years, the son of Christian Sotomayor and Kristina Dzanhobekova he will know that he came into the world, probably in Asturias, fleeing from a war in his mother’s country, Ukraine. Kristina, who has carried her husband’s surname since their wedding in Cudillero in 2019, will not be able to fulfill her wish to give birth in Lviv, the city where they went to live when Christian lost his job in Avilés and Kristina decided to make a hiatus in his sports career. Just a week ago, her plans were drastically altered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which led them to seek a quick exit to Avilés, where Christian’s parents, sister and grandmother live.
At first, Kristina hesitated about the best thing to do because she had already settled accounts and a trip of more than three thousand kilometers awaited her. Unlike many of her compatriots, she had the advantage that Lviv is only 60 kilometers from the Polish border. But that was precisely the first big stumbling block of her journey. “They ran into a monumental traffic jam. They left home at 11 p.m. on Thursday and had to return on Saturday because they ran out of food and water,” he explains. Niurvis SotomayorChristian’s mother, who came to Asturias from Cuba in 1998 fleeing the Castro regime.
The mishap had a great psychological impact on Kristina, who witnessed the death of a baby in one of the nearby cars. Despite everything, the Sotomayor family hit the road again on Sunday to leave Ukraine through the Hungarian border. Since then, Christian, Kristina and their mother, Tanna, have traveled through Hungary and Slovakia, until they had to stop in the German city of Nuremberg due to a car breakdown. Yesterday they were pending the cost of the repair, for which they will be able to count on the proceeds from a crowdfunding campaign, and continue on to France and Spain.
Kristina Sotomayor arrived in Asturias in 2015 to play for Club Badminton Oviedo and soon became one of the most outstanding players. In 2020, after her husband lost her job in Avilés in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic, they decided to move to her house in Lviv. Kristina continued to play for Oviedo and was key to the League title won in May 2021, but she decided to spend the pregnancy and give birth in her city, where Christian got a job as a welder. During all this time, Kristina has maintained contact with the president of Oviedo Badminton, Nicholas Garciathe technical director, Cesar Gonzalezand other directors, who have participated in the campaign to help the family and have asked for the support of club members and players.
