We are just under halfway through the World Championships in Wuxi, and just under half of the Mexican team has passed without pain, but without glory (perhaps with a little pain) on the blue tatami here in China. Most are paying the price of inexperience, and some others are paying the price of not having corrected their mistakes in time during their preparation to attend an event like the one taking place in the Far East.
It was a strange day, or at least strange for me; I can't describe it any other way. Whenever a Mexican loses, I am overcome by a flood of emotions, and surprise is not usually one of them. I've been doing this for so long that I can more or less predict the outcome of a fight based on the track record of both competitors, yet I've never dared to bet against Mexico. Hope dies with the last Mexican standing, and that still seems a long way off in this competition.
Today I am going to address the elimination of the Mexicans as it happened: first Victoria, who has had the most difficult fight of any Mexican here so far: Althea Laurin, current world champion and current Olympic champion... Nothing else. Victoria is currently the most experienced member of the national team, she fought in the world championships in Puebla, you don't need to know anything else. That being the case, I think her experience showed. Far from seeing a competitor overwhelmed by facing the toughest opponent she could have had in the draw, I saw a Victoria who stood her ground and fought as an equal, and this is where the strange feelings begin: I think the scoring was unfair. I have a couple of photos where you can clearly see Victoria touching the helmet, yet the system didn't call it, and they lost the card by reviewing something that I'm also sure was called.
I'm not sure what to call this. I don't want to say it was theft, but I can say that it's not fair. It's impossible not to think that there's a tendency to reject VR applications because of the upcoming change, and it's also impossible not to think, after seeing cases like this (because it hasn't been the only one), that approving this rule is tantamount to shooting ourselves in the foot. As long as the PSS isn't reliable in this regard, we're going backwards.
It is also impossible to ignore the obvious: when the system is Daedo and it fails, the system is changed; when the system is KPNP and it fails, the rules are changed, but that is another story and should be told another time... LONG LIVE KOREA! (Oppa is Gangnam style)
Oscar Navarro, for his part, had an excellent first round against someone who had no idea where he was, but in the next round, I think it was Oscar himself who didn't know where he was. The game of touching to score can be functional under certain circumstances, but in a category such as -87kg, it is not enough and, in fact, I think it is very dangerous. In categories like these, it is not just about scoring, yes, you have to do that, but you have to know how to hit hard (very hard), and above all, you have to be able to take the blows that come your way, which are also very hard. It was very evident after a few blows from the Tunisian that the Mexican was no longer entering with the same confidence, and that also needs to be worked on. The game of touching, while it should be in your toolbox, cannot sustain a fight; it's like bringing spoons to a fight with bats.
And almost at the same time that Oscar finished, Edgar Hernández was fighting against an Uzbekistani in the next area, who would later win the bronze medal. So far, this is the only defeat of a Mexican against an opponent who made it to the podium. I think Edgar did very well, but he couldn't keep up with the Uzbek, who was in outstanding form. I have no problem with this fight. The Mexican lost to someone better than him and lost trying, just as he did in the previous round, when he managed to turn the match around. I've said it many times these days: at the World Championships, sooner or later you're always going to come up against someone like that, and you have to be ready. This experience should be very valuable for the Mexican, because few people in the world will face that level of challenge, so he should be able to take advantage of it.
Anyway, the days go by, half the team is left, and even though today's charts aren't the best either, we have to keep the faith, just that, keep the faith.
