LNext week the Judo World Championship will be held in Tashkent (Uzbekistan). Be from October 6 to 13. In ‘Femenino Singular’ we talk to star lopez y Carla Ubasart, two of the main candidates to qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024. The World Cup next week will serve to score points in the classification for the goal set. The two judokas were preselected to participate in this world championship but an injury prevented Carla Ubasart from competing. She has been injured for months and although she hoped to be ready for this appointment in the end she has not been able to do so despite “having put all her efforts”. However, she still has room for maneuver and championships where she can participate to add those points that she needs. “We hope that those points can be obtained by my partner.”
Estrella Lopez Sheriff Yes, I will be able to participate in this World Cup. It will be the second day of competition, on October 7, in the category of -52 kilos. “I arrive with great enthusiasm. I feel calm and mature that I did not feel a few years ago. I remember my first World Cups and my first Europeans with some anxiety. Now I am at another point. More focused on doing things right, resting and putting it all into competition day.”
A few months ago she was the one who stayed on the ground for the European championship. “We are looking forward to going to an appointment together and being able to compete in the same championship because we have been alternating injuries for a few years. We want to go beyond the work we do in training and we would like to share these moments of competition”.
Carla Ubasart compete in the category of -57 and star lopez at -52 but the two work like a team. For them, achieving good results in competition is essential to continue practicing judo at a high level because the scholarships that allow them to continue training depend on those results. Even so, the few hours that the training leaves them are used to work in trades related to the careers they have studied. Carla studies sports management and Estrella sports psychology. The two plots are essential to achieve success at a high level. Thanks to their knowledge they can better analyze what surrounds highly competitive sport. On the one hand, the preparation and the psychological and emotional work necessary to face a competition in which to win means obtaining a scholarship that can allow you to continue fighting for your goals. And on the other hand, the support of the small sponsors who help make this path easier. “Me this one leaves me without opcin de beca ADO because only the seven best in the world get it, that is, it would have to be, at least, seventh in the world championship. It is a very important championship and that is why it is preparing with special attention and trying to reach the peak of form for this event”, Carla Ubasart told us. We must remember that only the 18 best in the world of each weight can go to the Olympic Games .
Estrella López is clear that she is going to fight to finish higher than seventh place. “But from our point of view it is something that is not well done. There should be a global calculation of the whole year to determine what your level is. It can’t be that if you get injured for a championship you run out of scholarship options. I have experienced that real pressure that implies thinking ‘if I pass this fight I have this scholarship that literally solves my life and if I lose this fight I’m out’. That pressure is detrimental to the athlete and is not something we should be thinking about before a fight.“.
That is why some of the sponsors they have are so important. Like, for example, Manzanas Livinda, which has launched the program They are from here that rewards the sports projects of Spanish athletes. And so are other sponsors who, despite not being large multinationals, do do their bit to allow these two judokas to pay for trips to competitions that the federation cannot afford. “The federation covers the expenses of major championships, world and European, but the rest, grand slam, grand prix and international open, we have to pay ourselves,” confessed Estrella López. “It’s very stressful having to think about money and putting economic needs before sports needs,” declared Carla Ubasart.
The World Cup can be seen by streaming in IJF live
