Judo: Manuel Costa e Oliveira, president of the federation in exercise, assesses the mandate.
The Portuguese judo knows this Saturday a new leader. The president still in office, Manuel Costa e Oliveira, even announced the re-election, before the Olympic Games Rio2016 and mode back to win a medal, by Telma Monteiro, but, He decided not to proceed.
In March 2013, Manuel Costa Oliveira, who was secretary-general, He was elected president of the Portuguese Judo Federation (fPJ) for the four 2013/2016, taking the time highlighted three of the points of his election program: “universalize or judo”, “get sports results, with better conditions”, and “growing mode”, taking it to the interior and to the islands.
Four years later, Manuel Costa Oliveira, takes stock of his term in the Portuguese Judo Federation.
– What is your assessment of the Olympic cycle and Paralympics - Rio 2016?
The Olympic and Paralympic cycle went very well in the Portuguese Judo Federation, what we call Rio cycle 2016. During an Olympic cycle we have never had so many medals, that clear, They are an important data. It is the result of the work done, the level of Cadets, Juniors and Seniors, culminating in the Bronze Medal Telma Monteiro in the Olympic Games and ratings of Joana Ramos, Sergiu Oleinic do is do Jorge Fonseca.
I think it went well, especially Cadets and Juniors. we Cadets, recently we achieved one European medal, by Patricia Sampaio, to add to that we had won by Joan Cesario (Silver and Bronze) in 2003 and by Nuno Saraiva (Bronze) in 2010. in Juniors, We could medals, average, of 10 in 10 years and this cycle we climbed the podium every year. I speak Medals World and European high quality athletes like Nuno Saraiva, Mariana Esteves and others who have had a great level.
We also had never had so many Judoka in the Olympic project and to participate in the Games as now had with Joana Ramos, the Telma Monteiro, Sergiu a Oleinic, Nuno Saraiva, Celio Dias and Jorge Fonseca, but it was worth it not to have had more, once we had several athletes who were "the door" qualifying. I'm remembering Ana Cachola, do Carlos Luz, Nuno Carvalho, Diogo Lima, Andre Alves and Ramirez Yahima, who were very close to go to Rio de Janeiro. Even so, the 6 I mentioned and were the Games, They had a fantastic performance and allows me to say that the balance is highly positive.
Regarding Judo Paralympics what we achieved was also excellent. Portugal never had had a judoka in the Games this part and now had Miguel Vieira, What began as Paralympic hope and reached the Paralympics. Miguel got a 9th place, We had slightly higher expectations, but I think it was still good, especially because it was the opening of a door, to point, now, already have more athletes like Djibrilo Iafa that are paralympic hopes. Taking into account the work that we have developed in this area, will not be an exaggeration to believe that, after this year we have had the first Judoka Paralympics, we have 3 athletes in Tokyo, which is a remarkable growth.
If we consider the Judo Adapted and SurdolÃmpico also found growth. We had Joana Santos Algarve to get great results, recently returned to medalhar in the World Championship and now comes João Machado, new hope SurdolÃmpica. In adapted shed, for athletes with intellectual disabilities, we also took important steps to participate in the European Championships and win medals.
Clearly the Judo Federation of Portuguese grew in these areas, which makes me particularly happy for everything that was done.
– What remains to be done in this cycle?
I would say that there were some things left to do. Financial difficulties have failed to do so much as we would like and we had planned.
In training, we moved to the "Judo at School" program where we train 200 youth 10 schools, more than 200 physical education teachers in the judo area and start a training project with the International Judo Federation in early January. Although much has been done in this area I think there is much to do yet.
Eventually we could have done more in the development of the sport within the country and in cities such as Bragança, Vila Real, Watch, Viseu, withe Castle, Portalegre, Evora and Beja. There is much to do in this area I call the inside. Unfortunately no financial resources to move forward with activities that promote this growth, which of course left us short of expectations.
They are prepared over strategies and other short / medium term.
We need that Judo is more recognized, fill pavilions, has great acceptance of the public and attract sponsors. It is a path we have to do with human resources, technical and financial.
I liked to have made more progress on this path, but I am satisfied with everything we have achieved.
