Girls on the Tatami

Avtor: Aleš Fevžer
Datum: 18. 07. 2004
Twelve years have passed since the last Slovene appearance on the Olympic tatami, when žtefan Cuk and Filip Leščak represented their country at the Barcelona Olympics, the first time that Slovenia competed under its own flag. Although an unfavourable draw meant that they were unable to achieve a notable result, I still remember the enthusiasm with which they described their fights with the best in the world, and the unforgettable atmosphere in the hall...enough to start me following judo competitions, a sport which has long been present in žtajerska.
Judo, an ancient Japanese martial art, is often pushed to the margins of sports activity in our towns. For its many devotees, however, this is merely a further reason to persevere with training and competition. Following a period of major succeses of the Impol judo club in Slovenska Bistrica, top-level judo established itself at Sankaku in žalec and the Bežigrad club in Ljubljana. Systematic and methodical work with young people has enticed a large number of children onto the mats who are today regular members of the national team. Successes at European and world championships, Youth Olympic Festivals and Category A world cup competitions mean that Slovene judoists are ranked among the best in their categories.

Although judo in Slovenia has always been a boys´ sport, girls are now achieving excellent results too, largely thanks to the efforts of former top-level competitors who have retired from active competition and dedicated themselves to coathing - most notably Marjan Fabjan, who, as thecoach and selector of the national women´s team, is constantly on the go. The foursome of girls who are already being compared to Slovenia´s female skiing aces are: Rasa Sraka in the -70kg weight category, Petra Nareks in the -52kg category, Urška žolnir in the -63kg category and Lucija Polavder in the +78 category.

"Initially it was really just a game, but when I started getting my first victories and winning medals at competitions, the judo bug really bit me," says Raša Sraka, the only one of Slovenia´s four female judo aces to hail from Ljubljana. Years of training and perfecting her technique have been crowned by a gold and two bronze medals at the last three European championships. A gold medal from the Mediterranean Games in Tunisia and numerous successes in world cup competitions give her courage as she faces the most important contests of her career. The excellent work of her coach Janusz Pawlovsky, who has been training her for for the last four years, has given the tenacious Raša additional strength to face the best female judoists in the world. "Besides physical strength and the technique, a lot depends in judo on the right mental approach. During a fight you have to be patient and wait for your opponent to make a mistake, but at the same time you have to be sufficiently combative to avoid a penalty for inactivity. Every combat brings you new knowledge that you must use to your own advantage."

Her opponents come from countries where judo has a long and rich tradition, and where conditions for training are also much better. "In Japan they´ve got real judo schools where the athletes live and train. You´re never short of partners for training there, so this year I spent a whole month at one of them. Everything was fantastically well organised and my thoughts were entirely focused on training. In France, judo is a subject at elementary school, so it´s no surprise that they are among the best in the world."
Slovenia´s female judoists will continue to delight the sporting public in future. Experts believe that the era of Slovenia´s female judo aces is only just beginning, and that as well as collecting points for successful throws (yuko, koka, wazari), they will often achieve ippon: throwing an opponent onto her back means an immediate end to the contest.