After a long time waiting, the National Judo League returned. Almost twenty judokas from Doryoku traveled to Villaviciosa de Odón to compete in the most important Judo team tournament at the National level. The earliest risers were the juniors. By 9:30 am they were on the mat, while the senior team competed in the afternoon.
The feelings of the senior team could not have been better … Three victories and only one defeat on the first day for the Salamanca club. Despite the last minute casualties, the team knew how to adapt in each match; in fact, they did not repeat the alignment in any of the confrontations.
Judo club Doryoku played the first match against Akari. The Canarian team had a very strong team and the fights were very even from start to finish. In team tournaments, 5 judokas from each team face each other, one from each weight (66, 73, 81, 90 and more than 90 kilos). Finally and after all the fighting the victory went to Doryoku with a tight 3 – 2.
The second match was against the Stabia from Mérida. It was not just any meeting since the relationship with this club is very close. Again, it fights very evenly but in this case, the victory went to the rival team, also 3-2.
He had to compose himself and think about the last two rivals: Sotillo (Madrid) and Pamplona. The good thing about the National Judo League is that once you finish a match, you can’t do anything other than prepare for the next match. The day was turning out to be very even and the storyteller with Sotillo was no less so. Again 3 -2 in favor of Doryoku against the local team. With Pamplona, the Doryoku judokas gave everything they had inside to close with a 5 – 0 in favor.
This time the senior team consisted of: Charlie Antón, Pepe Ramos, Marcos Mangas, Fernando Díaz, Yeray Hernández, Francisco Pablo (Judo Yoshi) and Pedro Palomares (Judo Club Palencia).
Israel Contador could not be on point due to an injury he had at Veterans National a week earlier. For his part, Joaquín Cidoncha was again lending a hand to the team from the chair as a coach.
Junior Team
The junior team debuted in the league with a new, young, eager team. We miss the experience of this year and a half of hiatus but the team competed from less to more. The first match, the Doryoku judokas failed to meet and lost to a great team (UCAM Ciudad de Murcia) by a bulky 5 – 0. The next match, the charro judokas recovered by prevailing against Ibaraki with a 4 – 0 and deploying very good judo. In the last match, they yielded to San Sebastián, in a match that was fairly even, but which ultimately went to the Basque team. The charro group was made up of Álvaro Antón, David Valverde, Luis Rodríguez, Álvaro Alonso, Javier Domínguez, Carlos González, Pablo Recio, Yeray Hernández and Tasio García.
