• Niko Shera Goodbye to one of the clearest gold options for Spain

The day that, at the age of nine,

Nikoloz Sherazadishvili

knocked on the door of the Quino Ruiz de Brunete dojo because "he wanted to train judo every day," yesterday

flashed

through his mind when the Uzbek

Davlat Bobonov

removed him from any possibility medal in the majestic Nippon Budukan. On the fine line between Olympic success and failure, between a gold and a seventh place, there is room for years and years of Spartan training. In the inconsolable sinking of a 1.90 meter judoka those days of monastic life, of fighting against the scale, of technical improvement are remembered.

Niko didn't really know how to react to the disappointment of a 25-year life. He briefly protested to the judges, threw himself on the ground, cried, covered himself with a towel, apologized to his coach ... It took him almost half an hour to get out of the locker room, reddened eyes, calm words that tried not to break. "I will need time to analyze everything that happened. I have not been right the first time. The feelings were not what they

should have been for everything he had trained. But the day and you have to give everything.

I tried convince me that it was okay, but it was

n't. I can't say anything else, "he said, without a hint of excuses.

His image, unconscious, eyes lost, on the tatami after losing in the fourth strangulation (okuri-eri-jime) by

Mikhail Igolnikov

will already be one of the most painful of the Spanish delegation in these Games.

Niko attended as recent world champion (June 10).

Expectations through the roof.

Pressure?

"Perhaps yes, it may be a small part.

I don't even know what happened to me

, what I have done wrong. In my opinion I have done everything perfect," he pronounced in the bowels of the Budokan.

The combat that marked his life

Niko could not fulfill the dream of

Zakaria

, his father, who died shortly after arriving in Madrid. With him, in his native Tbilisi, he saw that fight that marked him for life. That of

Zurab Zviadauri

in Athens 2004, the first Georgian Olympic champion. "He won in a spectacular way, it was shocking. He created me the feeling of wanting to be there, of wanting to win," he told EL MUNDO a few months ago.

He couldn't even grab a bronze that, in his case, would have been the lesser evil, not a success. But he could not recover against a rival, the Uzbek, whom he had always defeated. Despite the attitude that seemed different from the apathetic one in the morning. "Since the first fight I've been bad. The first one has taken me a lot. The second, too. Normally I win before my time and I think the first three fights have never taken me so long. Never. So, I don't know ... . ", he was trying to find an origin to his disappointment.

Something that he did mention several times was the subject of weight, an obsession of judokas. With his height, Niko finds it harder and harder as the years

go by to lose 91 kilos

. That is why, he acknowledged, this was his last fight in that category: he will go to the one under 100. "Lately it is difficult for me to give the weight. But I have eaten what I had to eat. I know that my muscle mass grows and it is more difficult. I had a lower percentage of fat, more and more muscle ... ".

And, as if speaking to himself, Shera thought about tomorrow, always the most painful day. You want to forget everything, you want to start as soon as possible, all at once. "Now I don't want to see the tatami,

I need to clear

my mind. It has been a very hard years, I have not rested at all and I want to clear my mind and come back with great enthusiasm ... I already have my head in the following [Games]. lost, I'm terrible, but I need some time to clear up ", he was right to reason.

His goodbye is a good blow for Spanish judo, who also fired his last competitor this Wednesday,

María Bernabéu

, fifth in Rio, eliminated at the first exchange in Tokyo.

If in the recent World Cup, Spain, in addition to Niko's gold - no Spanish had ever won two world golds in judo - settled with the silver of Ana Pérez Box at -52 kilos and the bronzes of Fran Garrigos (-60) and Julia Figueroa (-48), in the Games the curse remains.

One of the sports that was used to success in the 90s (three golds, one silver and two bronzes), but that since

Isabel Fernández's

bronze

in Sydney 2000 does not know what it is to climb an Olympic podium.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

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