Since 2018, step by step, Club Sportfight -based in the facilities of the Spartan Fitness Center in Caranza- has been watering the seed of disciplines that, until not so long ago, for most of us sounded a bit distant, such as grappling –gi and nogi– or jiujitsu. Basic pillars of a job that they are now expanding with Olympic and Greco-Roman wrestling.
A task that this week leads two of its members to be part of the Spanish team that competes in the European Grappling Championship. Bruno Martínez and Marcos González are two of the sixteen names from the state team that will fight to get on the podium in the event that begins today in the Romanian capital, Bucharest. A drawer that González already touched in the last World Cup of the discipline, held in Pontevedra – and that gives a good account of the strong commitment that Galicia is taking for these fighting disciplines – and in which he finally finished fifth. “He stayed for nothing”, says Martínez shortly before traveling to Romanian lands to be present yesterday at the opening ceremony of this competition. Now, what the almost local medalist is looking for is “to get on the podium -in the -130 kilo box- and make history”, points out his teammate and teammate.
Experience and options
For Martínez, this will be his first competition of this level in this discipline. But the 40-year-old from Ferrol is by no means a newcomer in international events of this type, with extensive previous experience in judo or sambo events. Thus, as a “false rookie”, the man from Ferrol is clear that “I will go anywhere to win”, he comments with conviction between laughs, “and my teammates are the same, it is also what we teach at the club”.
And so he hopes it will also be in the continental box of less than 92 kilos of body weight. Some options supported by the results achieved by both in the last Spanish Championship, in which González signed a new title in grappling gi and Martínez a runner-up in this modality and a bronze in the test without a kimono. Some podiums that, together with those of his teammates, took Sportfight to a historic third position in the adult grappling table. Something never achieved by a Galician club, and that he wants to continue writing the story of these disciplines in the community, and also in the rest of the country.
School
With Martínez or González present in this international championship, and that its president Manuel Permuy came to be number one in the world ranking of his category and weight of Brazilian jiujitsu – the local will compete again, precisely, this weekend at the AJP event of London after several weeks injured–, among other achievements, they become excellent claims for this club to continue growing. Especially in the last two years in which “we have been working hard and given a good stretch,” says Martínez, pointing out his efforts to “promote the school.”
Something that, if in more well-known disciplines is already difficult, in these “without so much tradition”, as the Ferrolano points out, it becomes a little more complicated. A “recruitment” that excites the locals, who are “very happy with how these disciplines are working” and growing in the region.
