A great Olympic-level Master Class directed by Prisca Awiti Alcaraz, silver medalist in Judo at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, was held at the “Victoria de las Democracies” Deportivo, in Azcapotzalco, Mexico City, where the holder of this Mayor’s Office, Nancy Núñez Reséndiz, invited her to be Sports Ambassador of the district.
This special seminar was held within the framework of the 2024 Judotechnic Cup National Club Tournament, where judokas from different states of the Mexican Republic attended, from beginners to high performance.
The Master Class with Prisca Awiti took place on Friday prior to the tournament, considered the highest event at the interclub level, where from the beginning of the tournament the Olympic medalist was willing to share some of her techniques that led to her reaching the Olympic podium.
The activities began at the appointed time, where all the judokas were already in their uniforms ready for class and with a great greeting from all those attending to the silver medalist, who reciprocated in the same way.
With enthusiasm, and as in all training, the session began with a warm-up in which the Olympic athlete herself participated to give an example of each exercise.
Already with the judogis somewhat wet with sweat, Prisca Awiti went on to show the way to do one of her favorite techniques that she has applied in different international tournaments that she has attended and that led her to be in two Olympic Games, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
With the support of a practitioner from CDMX, the Olympic medalist gave the instructions to perform the first steps of this technique.
Immediately, he gave the instructions for the attendees to perform the movement, for which several Sensei assisted him to review and correct the large number of practitioners, as well as the medalist herself.
The Master Class continued with great dynamism, until a brief pause was made to receive Mayor Nancy Núñez, who without hiding her emotion, welcomed Prisca Awiti to the territory of Azcapotzalco with a big hug.
After greeting and also welcoming all those attending the Master Class, the mayor gave a message to all the inhabitants of this mayor’s office.
“Neighbors, we are happy to have the honor, the pleasure, of receiving Prisca in Azcapotzalco in this great tournament led by the teachers of the (sports) ‘Victoria de las Democracies’. It is a great honor and we are inviting her to be one of our Sports Ambassadors for Azcapotzalco, and to motivate boys, girls and young people that they can get ahead.”
To these words and invitation, Prisca Awiti responded:
“Indeed, I always say, well, I started when I was 8 years old, so I started with a white belt and here I am. So, I always say that if you want it, you can do it, always dream big and never, never, never let anyone take your dreams away from you, because anything is possible.”
After these words and after giving more greetings, Nancy Núñez and Prisca Awiti went on to take a photo with all those attending the Master Class, to immediately resume training.
After expressing not wanting to interrupt the Master Class and the judokas’ time, the training continued, while the mayor stayed a few more minutes to observe its development.
In this way, the Olympic medalist resumed the steps to develop the movement or technique Yoko-tomoe-nage, Tokui-waza, to lower her back to the floor, while placing one foot on the opponent’s abdomen to propel him above her .
After several repetitions of these exercises, where everyone present made an effort to perform them properly, the Master Class came to an end, and Prisca Awiti then gave several minutes for attendees to ask questions about her career.
A relevant point was that the first to raise their hands were the child judokas, who asked questions about when and how they started judo, what was their first tournament to win, their favorite techniques, their next goals, among other interesting topics.
After this question and answer session, the moment arrived when Prisca Awiti agreed to take photos with all the attendees and their families, for which she took out the Silver medal she won in Judo at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Photos: Roberto Balderas Armendáriz | ©Martial Arts Path.
