“I share my experience with young people and help them understand the high level”

In an interview with Wiwsport, Hortence Diedhiou returned to the reasons for holding this course dedicated to young people: “Each year, my staff organizes an end-of-year course to allow me to share my experience with young people and then help them understand the high level. When we are going to compete, how many days we train, how long we train, so I bring these little details. How we behave too, you have to sleep early, you have to eat correctly, which I share with a lot of clubs every year. I don’t care about the number of fighters, even if there are one or two, I work, it’s my staff who takes care of it. What is certain is that Gambia is there. The Saint-Louis team is here. Kaolack is here. Senseï master Karim from the Senegalese Judo Federation is there as well as my different Kasafor clubs which are at the level of Ziguinchor, Baïla and Mlomp. »

She says she is satisfied with what she saw during this internship: “It is a great pleasure to see the commitment, the desire of young people to come and share with me the little knowledge I have and the interest that they lead to asking a lot of questions to sharing a lot of moments, my way of doing judo, my favorite techniques; and then I try to bring a little more of what they already have in their clubs. As in Saint-Louis we work a lot with my colleague Bilal Fofana, we have students who are very good, it is the future of Senegal. It’s up to us to help them in whatever way we can so that they can reach our level or surpass us. The wish is really that they surpass us.

She continues: “What remains is doing a lot of training, a lot of competitions and support. I would like to take this opportunity to ask the authorities to support the clubs, not just Kasafor, but the Casamance judo clubs: we are a little behind, which is a shame, when we have many champions. If we have to say the best of Senegalese judo, Casamance will not stay behind. If I can mention in particular Abdou Karim Seck who is there, myself, Lassana Coly world champion, Ankline Diabone, Patricia Anzalé and many others, not to mention just a few. We just need the authorities to support us a little, sports fans, sports lovers, to help us a little, because it’s expensive to compete every time in Dakar, Thiès or Saint-Louis, it requires a lot of resources. The kimonos, the journey, all that, we really reach out to all our authorities to support us,” said the bronze medalist at the Judo World Cup in Romania.

Wiwsport.com