Aaron Fara enjoys to back on the podium

Aaron Fara will soon celebrate his 25th birthday. The former European Junior Champion and World Junior No. 1 finally had reason to celebrate in Madrid after more than three years, winning the European Open in Madrid in impressive fashion with five impressive Ippon victories. Now he wants more. JUDO AUSTRIA interviewed, Fara who is self-critical and modest.

2018 was the last time you were on the podium, 2019 was the last time you were in the top 7. Since then there have only been zeros. How important is this win to you, how do you rate this success for you personally?

Aaron Fara: “It feels like this victory comes after an eternity and many lows. But it makes sense: I already had my weight on Thursday, 99.4 kilos, and I'm fitter than I've ever been in my life. I prepared extremely intensively for Madrid in training. I have to admit: I haven't taken judo that seriously for a long time. What's more, it was really cool to work with Felipe Kitadai and Robert Krawcvzyk, our new coaches. They were world class players themselves, both prepared me extremely well and intensively for my opponents today. I can only say thank you. It was a day when I was finally able to show at a tournament what I can usually only do in training.”

Why did it finally work now?

Fara: "It's easy to blame others for your own failures. I had to admit it to myself: I've certainly learned from my mistakes in recent years and am now training harder than ever. With Aslan Papoyan and Adam Borchashvilli we have a really cool training group, we work extremely hard and it's great fun. We push each other every day. I'm glad that the work of the last few months has now paid off for the first time. But only a result on the World Tour really counts. That was an important step, but more must follow... Well, I can't believe that I'm already world class."

How do you rate your fights today?

Fara: “Twice I threw uchi-mata, 2 x harai-goshi and won the final with a hold. Technically, I was really good, and physically I was certainly the strongest of all 26 participants. No fight lasted longer than 1:20 minutes. As I said before: I was well prepared and ready to fight.”

Unfortunately, your Tokyo campaign was not crowned with success. Are you currently thinking about the Olympic qualification, which will start at the end of June, or is that still too early?

Fara: “I always think of the Olympics. But it has to be done step by step. I not only want to win a European Open tournament, but also on the World Tour. That is my goal. Shamil Borchashvili showed what hard work can do with his Olympic bronze medal. That's what I'm trying to do now... I'm going full throttle!”

You have already fought twice this year in the +100 category. Will you try again?

Fara: “My win in Madrid showed where I belong at the moment. The heavyweight foray was a whim, maybe the end goal of my judo career. But that's probably too early at the moment. I'm -100 in good hands and now I really want to assert myself there."