Sarah Menezes Stays Focused on 2016
Sarah Menezes is second placed in the world rankings in the extra-light category (48kg) - the first placed is the Mongol Urantsetseg Munkhbat. The focus on the ranking’s leadership seems inevitable, but that's not the judoka’s goal. The athlete believes that keeping a strong training and having a good performance in competitions are the most important things at the moment.
"I don’t care so much about the rankings. Even knowing that it's something important to be thinking about, it does not help one very much during competitions. When we step on the mat, this ranking issue doesn’t matter, anything can happen. I don’t have all this pressure on me to stay on top of the rankings, but I intend to stay at least in top three so that I can be head-key in the Games, “Sarah Menezes said.
In the beginning of this month the judoka won the bronze medal at the Grand Prix of Havana and she took part in a training before coming back to Brazil. Now, she says that the competitions will become more frequent. "In the first semester, we focused on training, including various exchanges. We made several trips in the first stage. Now in the second semester, we compete in as many events as we can, and in some cases, take the opportunity to participate in training camps, as we have just done after the Grand Prix of Havana, when we stayed three more days to practice a little more, " the judoka said.
Sarah Menezes must be one of the athletes called to the World Championships held between August 25th -31st in Russia, and states that one of the competitions’ preconditions shall be the Grand Slam from Russia, on July 12th and 13th.
"We will go to the Grand Slam of Russia. I'm sure the level is very high, as it was in Cuba. In this type of tournament we can always see how our opponents are. Besides, there are new people who can take us by surprise. It will be a great preparation for the World Championship from August, which will also be in Russia, " Sarah Menezes concluded.
