Mayabeque, Cuba: The women’s judo in Mayabeque is honored with an athlete, who for years has successfully represented Cuba in important top-level international competitions. This is Anaily Dorvigny Hernández, who saw the first light in the municipality of San Nicolás on October 24, 1991.
With the recent retirement from active sport of this outstanding athlete, the youngest province increases its gallery of glories of Cuban sport, as results in high-level competitions give it the necessary endorsement.
At the age of eight, she started rhythmic gymnastics, but when she witnessed judo classes, she decided on that sport to which she devoted herself forever. The first techniques on the tatami were learned from Osvaldo Herrera, (Valdy), her first teacher, who saw in her natural talent and excellent physical conditions.
Anaily’s development was meteoric; after a few months, already in the 9-10 year category, she became provincial school monarch and the following year in the immediate one, she repeated when occupying the highest part of the podium. Those results guarantee her to enter the Eide Provincial Antonio Maceo, of Artemisa.
She participates in the National Pioneer Games and for two consecutive years she is titled a national champion. She, already in a superior category, has enough accumulated merits, so that the specialists of the discipline decide to grant her a place in the National Spain in the Pan-American Village.
From then on, her sports development multiplies and she begins her assault on higher goals. She conquers the bronze medal in her first youth national championship and in the following edition she took the crown.
Anaily’s debut in international competitions occurred at the age of 16, during the World Junior Championship that was held in Morocco, where the Cuban girl did not go beyond her first fight. She later received blanks in national championships and outside our borders, events that gave her enough sporting mastery to establish herself among the leading figures in her division.
She was still in youth age when she took part in a higher level contest, the 1st National Championship. Category and she surprised by winning a creditable bronze medal. She entered the National Senior Pre-selection in 2006.
During her 13 years as a member of the elite National Pre-selection, she defended the 63 kilogram division in the first five, but by strategy of her technicians they lowered it to 57, a division that always cost her many sacrifices to maintain the weight.
In national championships of the highest category Anaily was titled queen of the 57 kilos three times, the first in 2015 and repeated in 2017 and 2018).
At the national level, in addition to the elite leaders, she participated in the traditional Yudoguis Dorados tournaments, with the participation of the best exponents from all the provinces and on two occasions she climbed to the highest part of the podium.
The 2013 World Cup in Rio de Janeiro stands out among the many international events in which she had a leading role, in which he won a bronze medal; In the Dominican Republic, she bought three diadems, two of them at Women’s Festivals; In addition, in the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center, in 2017 she joined another in the qualifying tournament for the Central Americans of Barranquilla.
That same year, the Aztec city of Cancun organized the Grand Prix, where the girl from Batabanó showed her stability by taking over the subtitle. In 2018 she took the tatami of the XXVIII Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla, Colombia and took over the silver metal by yielding for the title, before the German based in Panama Myriam Rope.
She attended the World Championships held in Budapest, Hungary. Another important contest that she attended was the World University Games where she was in the fifth step.
She competed in other continental competitions with a balance of two bronze metals, one of them in the Cuban capital. Also on an unspecified date at the end of the same decade, she took part in a cap against Brazil and took the silver prize.
In April 2019, she began the final stretch of her sports career, she first attended the Continental Championship in Costa Rica, in search of the ticket for the Lima Games, but she did not get it. She fulfills that purpose the following month in Panama where she wins the gold and her passage to the Peruvian capital, one of her most desired goals.
In August the XVIII Pan American Games are held in Lima, Peru. Anaily was not present at the official judo awards as she was fifth; but after some time, when the results of the anti-doping tests were known, it was discovered that two of the medalists were disqualified by testing positive and the bronze went to the chest of the athlete of Mayabeque.
Upon returning from Lima, she requested the release of the National Team; Her decision was greatly influenced by the fact that for eight years, due to the discipline and necessity of the team, she had to maintain a lower body weight than hers, with the consequent sacrifices for her body.
In addition, she had suffered injuries and surgical treatments, so she felt it was the right time to leave the way to other young women with prospects. After her application was approved, the three-time national champion began the physical de-training stage for a year.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Physical Culture and Sports. In 2020 she started her working life as a judo coach with schoolchildren in her hometown.
On several occasions she was distinguished with the inclusion in the select list of the best athletes of the year in her province. The well-deserved official ceremony of her retirement as an active athlete will take place when the epidemiological conditions caused by Covid-19 allow it.
About what this sport represented in her life, Anaily expressed: “Judo meant a lot, because thanks to it I received a comprehensive education, it instilled in me discipline, will, feelings of companionship; he gave me many good friends. I feel privileged because I was a student of Professor Ronaldo Veitía, an example of a coach and educator; also for the total support of my family, especially my father; I am proud to have represented my country in many countries”.
The outstanding judoka is the female of that sport that provided the greatest triumphs to her native land and to Mayabeque, her service record accumulates enough merits to receive the status of Glory of Cuban Sports.
