2008-2018. 10 years ! Jonathan Horne waited a decade before relishing the joys of a world medal. Meanwhile, he has won everything, including 5 European championships.
In 2018, in the Madrid Worlds final, he faced the defending champion, Sajad Ganjzadeh. He couldn’t have dreamt of a better final. This is logically his best fight. Jonathan Horne tells us about his doubts at the start of the match, his mental change during the fight materialized by a beautiful Ura Mawashi synonymous with victory, in short, his path to success…
By Ludovic Mauchien
Photo: Kphotos
« The Madrid World championship final was a really, really good and hard fight against Sajad (Ganjzadeh), the current World champion and one of the best fighter ever. It was nice to fight against him.
First, at the beginning of the match, I thought : « OK, well, I don’t care, I am in the final at the Worlds. The 2nd place is mine, nobody can take it. Just go in and do it ». But, really, I thought I will lose. And, I start to fight a little bit too stiff. It was more like… I didn’t feel the distance, I just wanted to fight.
Then, he made his 2 points. From that moment, it was clear in my mind : « now, you have nothing to lose. Just go ahead and do what you can do and show everyone that you can be the best ».
Then, I took the right decision with the Ura Mawashi. That was a game changer. I had so much self-confidence from this moment that I was sure I will not lose this match. Of course, I always had to stay focused because he could do everything.
After my next point, I just made a good fight. I moved a lot, I made a lot of pushing, I attacked, I countered… I was feeling really well. And I scored the next point with Kizami Tsuki. 5-2. It was clear in my mind that I will win. That was my best fight. After the match, I was really happy that I fought against the best and I won against the best. It was one of the best match of this day ».
