Twelve medals for local representation at the opening of the Villa de Avilés

Neither the noise, the bagpipes and the environment, nor the color, could be misleading. Something was being cooked in the city and the epicenter was in the Quirinal sports center, with the best European junior category judokas beating the copper on the four tatamis of the XX Villa de Avilés Copa de España International Tournament.

The first to jump into the ring were the cadet category competitors, divided into eight weights in the male category and seven in the female category, a test corresponding to the Spanish Cup of the category. At a general level, both in boys and girls, Navarra dominated, although there were outstanding medals by the Avilés army, which closed the day with twelve metals, eight of them from a Judo Avilés that revived its best editions in terms of results .

Regarding Judo Avilés Nel Llope took the gold at -55 kilos, Alba Barreiro would achieve the first of her two silvers of the day, yielding only in the final to the Portuguese Adriana Torres and Pablo Muñoz was bronze at -81 kilos after fall in the semifinals against Eneriz Arkaitz. Claudia Lora, from Judo Sanfer, was silver at -57 kilos, while Óscar Camacho, one of the favorites, climbed to the third drawer of the podium at -66 kilos, closing the Avilés cadet medal table.

Once this competition was over, it was the turn of the majors, the juniors, with five weights in the male category and four in the female category. The gold medals were quite distributed, with a very good Portuguese and Asturian role, with a shower of prey for the locals, very wise throughout the day yesterday at El Quirinal.

For Judo Avilés, Alba Barreiro achieved her second silver of the day by falling only to the Portuguese Carolina Francés, again at the gold point. Pablo Menéndez beat his teammate Adrián González, so both ended up on the heavyweight podium. Another of the medals came from the hand of Mikel González, who curiously did not get a medal in cadet and did so with the ‘majors’. The last medal of the afternoon for Avilés came from the hand of Fernando Fresnedo in -73 kilos.

The Avilés medal table on the first day of Villa de Avilés was closed for the Club Óscar Fernández Celia Dacosta, bronze in -63 kilos, and Mateo Solís, gold in -81, both showing the good form in which they arrived at the appointment after the great absolute Asturias Championship held, precisely in El Quirinal a week ago.

Carlos Fernández, technical director of the tournament, qualified the first day of Villa with “excellent”, taking into account the reduction in capacity due to the covid, without any incident to review. Quite the opposite. With exemplary behavior on and off the tatamis, complying with the schedules and the rules of participation.

An intact bubble

After the infinity of PCR tests carried out, more than 600 on Friday, the Villa de Avilés remains full of negatives, so the health bubble that the organizer Judo Avilés wanted to generate is being a success. All participants have been able to go out to compete and the access controls to the sports center are being exhaustive, with invitations to enter the battles by blocks. Even so, the global environment has not suffered, with a great judo festival at the European level.

The ‘speaker’ Josu Alonso had the help of more members of the organization and volunteers, including Carlos Fernández himself or former judokas like Andrea Barreiro, sister of the double medalist Alba. Also lending a hand was the Real Avilés Industrial physiotherapist, Raquel Marlasca, absent of course during the hours in which she served the team in Ganzábal against Langreo.

Everything so that nothing goes out of the script and the ‘timing’ is fulfilled, since it is not easy to organize such a high number of competitors, coaches and club members in a limited space, despite the large dimensions and possibilities that offers The Quirinal.