- Interview.Nikoloz Sherazadishvili: "Several countries offered me a lot of money to nationalize me"
"He is very noble, one of the best people I know, he has no evil," describes coach Quino Ruiz , runner-up in the world in 1991, speaking about his pupil, Nikoloz Sherazadishvili , world champion last year, and would be a definition perfect, the words to which everyone aspires, if it were not because he speaks of a judoka and in judo "one must also enter to kill, not give away the rival or media." For many years, goodness was Sherazadishvili's weak point.
Emigrated to Boadilla from his native Georgia at age 14 in the middle of the South Ossetia War, when he began to compete in the country his physique and talent already excelled, but he lacked bad milk. «As a teenager I granted too many opportunities. He thought that he would not be attacked in certain ways, it was not in his mind that people would do whatever it took to win. It took me a long time to teach him that being a good person has nothing to do with what you do in competition, ”recalls Ruiz from Tokyo, where tomorrow Niko Shera (the abbreviation for which everyone knows him) will seek to revalidate world gold in the category of -90kgs
The fighter is still that kid who came to Spain distributing love -and with hardly any notions of Castilian-, but as soon as he wears the kimono he no longer forgives. After the success of 2018 - won the World Cup and Masters - and despite a back injury, this season has remained in number one in the world ranking with a victory in the Budapest Grand Prix and a third place in the Baku Grand Prix . In the same group as the karatecas, the canoeists or Lidia Valentín, she is one of the Spanish medal candidates in the next Tokyo 2020 Games with more options to hang it.
The place is almost fixed and therefore could be used to prepare the Olympic event all year, but does not relax. Tomorrow he wants to reach the final and there, perhaps, the Japanese Shoichiro Mukai , the revelation of the year, will be measured again, the man who already had a hard time lying down in the Budapest Grand Prix. «It has a complicated picture. He can meet in the second match with the Frenchman Axel Clerget , who was bronze in the World Cup last year, and in the third with the Korean Gwak Dong-han , who was bronze in the Rio Games. It is clear that he is the rival that everyone wants to beat, but I see him with brutal confidence. He is calmer than me, ”says Ruiz about Shera with whom he has a special relationship.
Since Shera appeared in Ruiz's gym in Brunete with a hardworking question, "Can I train here every day?", They both established a father-son bond that goes beyond sports. Last year, when he won the gold at the World Cup, the judoka dedicated the first minutes of celebration to comfort his mentor who had so much joy broken in tears: «Do not cry, Quino, do not cry». Before, the months before the championship, Ruiz was Shera's support when his father died of a heart attack at age 47 and when a cousin to whom he was very close died. «I have two natural children and for me Niko is the third. He is an angel, I am very lucky to share life with him », says the coach who was also the reason why the champion competes for Spain.
Before the stardom, Turkey made an offer of nationalization that, along with a large amount of money covered accommodation and travel, but Shera refused to stay with Ruiz. "I did not know what to say. I wanted him to stay in Spain, but I couldn't tell him what to do with such an offer. The truth is that he didn't think about it one day. He told me he was staying and since then we focus on achieving our goal: Olympic gold in Tokyo ».
Spain, still without medals
In the first three days of the World Cup Spain has not yet won any medal, although another pupil of Quino Ruiz, Laura Martínez, stayed in a fight to hang the bronze. Together with Shera, the best option is María Bernabéu, who will also compete tomorrow, in the -70 kg category. Bernabéu was silver four years ago, bronze two years ago and finished fifth in the Rio 2016 Games. The other team leader, Fran Garrigós, fell to the first.
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