By Daniyal Nasir Mirza
As teams from around the world arrived for the 2021 IMMAF World Championships, the hallways of the Millennium Al Rawdah Hotel were filled with chants of “Viva Mexico!” as undoubtedly the most audible national team arrived in style for check-in day.
Team Mexico may already have made their presence felt at the World Championships, but their journey to the World Championships has been anything but easy.
Mexico’s head coach Danny Solorzano sat down with IMMAF.org to recap the long and winding road Team Mexico had to take to get to Abu Dhabi.
“We couldn’t have a trip with all of the team together,” he began.
“Some of the guys went from Mexico to Canada, Canada to London, London to Istanbul and finally from Istanbul to Abu Dhabi.
“Some other guys went from Mexico to Houston, Houston to Dubai and Dubai to Abu Dhabi.”
For some of the team, that amounted to a journey of 22 hours to reach their destination, which made their check-in day jubilation even more intriguing. Clearly, multiple stops are not going to deter Mexico from following Solorzano’s gameplan for the team.
“I’ve got goosebumps listening to my team right now,” he grinned.
“The gameplan is being really positive and having that energy. We’re practicing a lot of psychology.
“We’re human beings, everybody wants to win. You have to be ready for anything. You have to be ready to lose, you have to be ready to win. You have to be ready for any fight that comes in front of you. You have to be prepared for any little second that happens in the cage. My team is taking in this moment and enjoying this platform very much.”
If Team Mexico’s performances in the cage can match the energy and enthusiasm they have already brought to Abu Dhabi, we could be set to witness something special from the 17-strong team at the 2021 IMMAF World Championships.
That, said Solorzano, is also part of the plan.
“We’re here to make history with our first gold medals, and we’re not talking about one, we’re talking about several,” he stated.
“We’ve come prepared and we’ve been working on this for years.”
