Judo Avilés returns to the origins

Change of cycle at the Judo Club Avilés. After a golden age in the First Division, where the men’s team achieved the runner-up in both 2012 and 2016, the entity led by Carlos Fernández has decided to return to its origins and renounce its place in the elite to voluntarily descend into the ‘mud’ of the Third and try to build a long-term project “with people from the house.”

It all started nine years ago, when the club got its first promotion to the top flight of national club judo. «It took us twelve years to get out of Third and we did it with a home team, based on club judokas like Omar, Marcos or Jaime, the strongest batches in the history of Judo Club Avilés. In those days there was a brutal feeling of belonging and that is what we are trying to recover », comments Carlos Fernández.

The decision has not been easy. “There may be people who do not understand it and I know that at the federal level it has been quite surprising, but after thinking about it a lot, something for which the pandemic has helped, I think it is the best for the club.” And it is that in recent years, the sporting successes of the first team, especially men, have entailed a significant economic effort, also linked to the difficulties that the promising homegrown players of the club had to show their heads among the best judokas in the League.

In this sense, Carlos acknowledges that «since the runner-up in 2016, the First National League has been growing, we along with him and assuming what it meant to be in the elite, we made large investments in signings, something that was a little prejudicial to the people of the club ». All of this led to the fact that «we began to perceive a loss of feeling of belonging to the club, something that we have always looked for in the club from the beginning. We began to wonder if we were doing the right thing and the result of deep reflection came this decision that we made about the horn, on the last day of the deadline to register teams.

The same helps

Carlos also reflects on the financial aid that the club receives. «In the end, the difference between competing in First or Third hardly exists. The municipal subsidy is practically the same and at the regional level we have never received anything ». Therefore, the idea of ​​returning to the origins has been taking shape to the point that the new men’s team has already decided and only has two signings. The rest, homegrown players.

Thus, the squad is made up of Javier Rad (5 years in First), Ricardo García (6), Adrián Imedio, Adrián Gutiez, Iyán Llope, Rodrigo Burgos, Zviadi Tevdorashvilli (2), Pablo Menéndez, Adrián González (1) and the Galician Antonio Sandino. «As a coach, I can say that I was so excited to fight for the league championship in the First Division as well as to go back to the origins this season in the Third Division. I think we are going to fight for promotion and we are going to do it with people from the house, a junior generation who looks very good and who feel very identified with the club. An exciting challenge awaits us ». The men’s team will be measured in group 1 of Third this year at Móstoles, Binéfar, Granadilla, Budo Granada, Bushican Las Palmas and San Sebastián.

For its part, the women’s team, which historically has never needed so many foreign additions to perform at a good level in the First Division, will continue to compete in the elite. In the absence of fifteen days for the market to close, and therefore the arrival of a transfer, the team is made up of Elisa Fernández (2), Julia Enríquez (1), Alba Barreiro (2), Raquel Burgos, Alejandra Pérez and Julie Hölterhoff.

The Avilés team will be measured this year in Primera in Sotillo, Getafe, Gredos San Diego El Escorial, Judo Fontenebro, Akari, Judokan Valencia, Valencia, Stabia, Móstoles, Judokan Alboraya and Granadilla. Both competitions will begin on September 25 in Madrid. Judo Avilés also strives to organize the International Villa de Avilés, very close.