Gaizka Porras during the last U23 European Championship in Sarajevo in which he attended with the Spanish National Team.
Gaizka Porras has lived in Valencia for three years. There he moved to train with a scholarship from the Spanish Judo Federation. He has just participated in a concentration of the Spanish National Team at the High Performance Center in Madrid after the Spanish Championship held over the weekend.
His first look has been to return home and yesterday, instead of taking the afternoon off, he wanted to be with the students of the Alcoi Judo Club School. They are gestures, decisions, that Gaizka Porras uses to recharge his batteries, because deep down, those classes remind him of that shy kid from the neighborhood who didn’t like to study, but who found refuge in judo, his passion and now his way of life. life.
Gaizka Porras’s eyes continue to light up every time he remembers his childhood in Batoi or his beginnings at the Judo Club Alcoi, first with Roberto Botella and later under the tutelage of his son, Pau, almost his second father due to the trust that exists Between both.
In fact, despite his status as an international judoka, despite being under the watchful eye of the Judo Federation, which is training him as the elite athlete he already is, Gaizka Porras continues to maintain his federation license with the Judo Club Alcoi and as long as his commitments allow him, he does not hesitate to give a class or attend a competition that is held locally.
“He is still the same shy boy and with a tremendous desire to learn as the first day he walked through the entrance door of the Judo Club”, recalls Roberto Botella, who took his first steps within the club. “We are very happy about this recognition”, in reference to the award as the best athlete from Alcoy 2022, the Juan Agudo Garat award, which he will receive with honors on Friday the 16th in the Sala Ágora. “It has taken him a long time to get there and I am convinced that he will continue to grow, because he loves judo. He is an example due to his humility and simplicity, also as an athlete, because he is constant and never gives up ”, admits Roberto Botella, the father of judo from Alcoy.
“I don’t mind being with the kids from the Judo Club. On the contrary, I do it with great pleasure and whenever Pau asks me and I can, because I train from Monday to Saturday, I don’t have any problem and I know what it means for those kids to see me with them. It happened to me, I put myself in their place and I remember that I loved that they came to explain things to me ”, admits the man from Alcoy.
Gaizka Porras made history a year ago by becoming the first male judoka from our city to be proclaimed absolute champion of Spain in -63 kg, thus taking over from Carol Prats, who was in the female category in 2012 in -57 kg, just ten years ago. Last weekend the Nacional was held, also in Madrid, in which Gaizka Porras defended the title, which he was unable to defend after finishing fifth.
He won the first match with solvency, lost the second due to an error, went to the play-offs where he clearly won both matches, but in the final for the bronze medal he failed in a tackle and fell against a very experienced rival. finally being fifth. “It was a big disappointment. Little things are what make the difference and I wasn’t good at two key moments”, admits the man from Alcoy.
Precisely those small details are the coin in the air that have not allowed Gaizka Porras’s record to reflect his true worth as a judoka. “That’s right, but elite sport is often cruel. I fight to be better. I think one day I will. In Spain we have a very high level of judo. There are the Olympic, world and European medals. However, there are countries where judo is very important and they are supported with a fixed salary through a job, either as a police or military, which means that they can dedicate themselves fully. I dedicate myself entirely to judo, I want to live in the future of this sport, I still don’t know how, so you look to the future and you don’t know what it will bring you ”, he confesses.
sweet and sour taste
He closes 2022 with a bittersweet taste, the same one that has accompanied him in some phases of the year, to open 2023 with enthusiasm and high expectations. “I still don’t know where the Federation will send me. At the beginning of the year I have an Open, I want to do well so that they can count on me. I am ambitious and I do not put barriers. 2022 has been my first year as a senior. It has helped me learn. In 2023 I want to take a step forward and, above all, at the international level, start to have good results, ”she slides.
That desire to continue growing is not only physical and technical, but also emotional, and for a year he has also been working on the psychological aspect. “I have been working on the mental part with a sports psychologist who is helping me a lot. That part was costing me more and I see that I am improving. It is not a step from today to tomorrow, it takes time and I think the results are starting to show. In elite sport it is very important to work on the psychological part. They are those small details that in a moment of maximum demand can make you win or lose a fight, ”she says to finish.
