Last week, 7News told you about the Judo Association of Belize's last minute entry into the 2012 Olympics, which is just 2 weeks away.
As we reported, Belize was selected to compete in Judo by way of a wildcard, which is basically, a "bly" given to countries least likely to get in by way of the qualifier rounds.
Although, it was a last-minute good fortune pick, the association announced that a top Belizean athlete has risen to the challenge of participating in the competition.
7News caught up with Cuban Belizean, Eddermys Sanchez, who will represent the country for Judo, and he told us how proud he was to have been given the opportunity.
He also told us that although it's a "Hail Mary" attempt he comes qualified as black belt judo athlete, a brown belt jujitsu athlete, and the previous number 5 best judo representative of his country of birth, Cuba.
Here's how he described his anticipation of the Olympics:
Eddermys Sanchez
"This is amazing, this is a dream. Belize is giving me the opportunity that I never had before. It's a nice thing to represent Belize and try to do something very good for this country at the Olympics. I am training very hard, I am sweating a lot and I hope to come back with something to this country - to make this proud. I am basically training 4-5 hours a day. I am doing 2 hours aerobics at the Pickwick Club and then I do 3 hours Judo in the morning with the Judo Association of Belize Dr. Pedro Nunez - they are the ones who are helping me with training sessions and 1 hour of bodyweights. I have a black-belt of first degree in Judo and I have been in Judo at the age of 8 years old. My whole life has been in competitions and working out in Judo."
"I have a lot of experience in competitions because I used to be number 5 in Cuba."
Neil Ohlenkamp, Judo International Trainer/Professional
"He is very trained already, so he has a very good solid Judo background from his previous competitions, so he understands competitions, he understand what he need to do and it not the last few weeks before going to the Olympics is it the time to learn new
things, it's a time to make sure you have down the basics and the solid things that you already learned. That's what he is focusing on - his strength, the things he already does well and refining them and getting into the perfect where he can last. In Judo it's a 5 minutes match and possible 3 minutes extension when there is a tie, so you got to be prepared to go 8 minutes with no breaks solid fighting and that takes a lot of conditioning and that's one of the main things he is working on - being able to make it through."
Sanchez, is being trained by a top level US judo coach and athlete, in order to have some measure of preparedness for the high level of competition at the Olympics.
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