Judo fighter Ivo Dos Santos practises some moves on training partner Sara Collins. 81594 Picture: MATHEW LYNN
By ADEM SARICAOGLU
IT HAS been a long 21-year journey, but Werribee judo star Ivo Dos Santos has finally realised his Olympic dream.
The 26-year-old is London-bound after qualifying at the Oceania Continental Championships in Cairns last month, and he cannot wait to get there.
“I feel pretty excited to be honest; it’s been a couple of weeks and I haven’t really come down from it,” Dos Santos said.
Dos Santos is coached by Daniel Kelly and his wife Maria Pekli, a bronze medallist from Sydney 2000.
“They’ve said it’s the biggest thing you can go through in your life,” Dos Santos said of being an Olympian. She’s been to five Olympic Games and had two kids and still says that she can’t differentiate which one of those was more important. As an athlete it’s what you always dream of and you’ve got maybe 10,000 athletes going, but it’s probably 10 million (athletes) across all those sports that would like to be in that position.
“It’s the pinnacle, everyone’s watching and every athlete wants to be there.”
Dos Santos has maintained Australia’s top ranking in the half-lightweight division since 2006, yet missed out on qualifying for the 2008 Games on points, despite beating the man who eventually did go to Beijing, Steven Brown.
The format for qualification has since changed for the London Games, which meant all Dos Santos had to do was finish in the top seven in Cairns and maintain a top-22 world-ranking.
Although Dos Santos didn’t have to win in Cairns, his preparation was strenuous nonetheless and he said the pressure at the event was immense.
“It was a pretty pressure-filled situation,” Dos Santos said. “Everyone was scrambling for last-minute points for qualifying so it was high pressure, but I managed to deal with it OK this time around and got the result. The preparation was pretty tough, we had a 10-day training camp in Cairns leading up to it, so there was a bit of hard work put in there.
“With dieting and dehydrating down to weight, it’s not fun, it’s a constant battle, it’s mental and physical but in the end if you get fit, make weight, you compete and you win, it’s all worth it.”
Dos Santos will leave for Europe in June to prepare for the Games and will be attending training camps and lead-up competitions.
His goal for London is to finish in the top-10, a few places higher than his current world ranking of 14.
Dos Santos will begin competing on 29 July, two days after marching in the opening ceremony, and he says he’s “pretty excited” about participating in one the world’s most-watched events.
“I have no idea how I’ll feel on the day or when I’m walking into the stadium,” he said. “Since I was five years old, as a little kid, I’ve wanted to be there, so it’s pretty much the pinnacle of everything. I can’t be much more excited than what I am at the moment.”
