Asturian judoka Adrián González won the bronze medal in the Junior European Cup held last weekend in Malaga. González, from the Avilés Judo Club, was the Spanish representative in the category of more than 100 kilos and faced high-level rivals, such as the Japanese Mitsuki Sugawara, the Ukrainian Oleksii Halaka, the German Paavo Ploehnert and the Estonian Karl Priilinn Turk.
Despite the discomfort he suffered in his right ankle and wrist, Adrián González was able to place himself among the top three in the league in his category, after beating Ploehnert. The Avilesian judoka also valued his level after returning to competition three years ago: “It’s about overcoming myself because I had a very serious back injury and competing still gives me some respect,” he stressed.
In fact, the injury still influences his sports performance. “It is the breakage of a peak of a vertebra. It’s not nonsense. We are talking that if the bone marrow comes out I will stay in a wheelchair. For five years I was not competing and I am a little afraid of falls. Two years ago I could not imagine being on a date like this and it will mark me, ”he assured.
Carlos Fernández, coach of Adrián González, pointed out that it is “a great result because we went to this event with the intention of learning with judoka who are in the top 10 worldwide. There is a long way to go, but a medal at European level helps us to continue and makes us stand out. In short, we have to keep working because we are facing a very young heavyweight, still to be trained, and we have to go step by step, without skipping stages and looking for tactical and technical improvements that help us grow.
“It has cost us a lot to get him off the ground since he was a kid,” Fernández added about his pupil, who at 19 has a great future ahead of him. The most immediate thing for him will be the three-day training sessions with the national team and, on the way back to Avilés, the last day of the National League with his club.
