Concluding day two of the European Youth Olympic Festival, were the -66kg young men as well as teams Serbia and Netherlands who were raising the roof of the Jane Sandanski Sports Center, the epicentre of the festival.
Boris JANKOVIC of Serbia is ranked #1 in the world, and given his standing he was understandably disappointed with his 7th place finish a month ago in the Cadet European Championships, but his coach, Djordje TOMIC, explained he was an entirely different person today, which led to his win over Tyn ZWIERS (NED).
We have worked together for a long time, since he was just a little boy, so we have our rituals, and there is not so much, other than we feel each other, we know how each other breathes, we just stayed with our tactics, we know every situation that we have to handle on the mat, and we practice this all the time. He just has to be on his level, he felt good, he lost weight well, he felt nice and confident with good energy, it was not the case for him at the European Championships, everything felt off for him. This time, it was his time and we’re happy to be in first place.
The pride of coach, Tomic, was clear, as was the relief and joy on the face of Jankovic, so how was he feeling beforehand?
Very nice! I felt so great going in to the final against this opponent, really very good and confident. My coach said to me before we went out, ‘Let’s go Boris’ and that’s what we did. It felt crazy when I threw him, of course in my head I was wanting it to be ippon, but I still won with this waza ari, so in the end it was okay. I could feel him change, but I stuck to my tactics, I knew what I had to do to stay ahead and finish the match like I wanted to.
There were so many people shouting for Jankovic, as well as officials from Team Serbia, how was it for the young judoka to have such a crowd willing him to win?
Oh it was so so good, without them I am nothing. I think I gave 20%, but my coach brought the 80%!
Tomic continued, and explained how it is for him to be in the coaching chair, also knowing how it feels to be in the centre of the tatami,
A lot of people of people came to support him, his family, friends, friends from the club, also Aleksandar Kukolj came to support us, we are very happy that we also had the Olympic Committee members here too but I can tell you I started to feel a little pressure! I must admit when I saw the Committee up there and how big the support in the crowd was, I was thinking ‘oh my god, we really must win now!’ Oh coaching is a different level, I cannot do anything, just tell him what to do and I don’t know in that moment if he can manage it or not but I am very very glad that he managed to do it today.
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen