Jokin Altuna looked like the Jokin Altuna of a week earlier yesterday. Same clothes and same message. Humility of the champion who may have lost. The txapelas do not go to his head. They are celebrated and stay at home. Five has been for 25 years. Yesterday no longer counts but tomorrow. With a hangover and a “bruised body”, he transmits contained joy and lucidity in his analysis.
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How was the night like?
– Well, I came to Amezketa quite late. Between the interviews on the court, then going upstairs, more statements, a press conference … I wanted to be calm and I was the last one after the third game showered. Pretty late. Then I was able to dine quietly with family and friends. Very grateful to the people. Many were going to work today and some changed shifts. We get together between 70 and 80 people. It was very nice.
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What was going through your head at that moment of taking off your heels and calming down?
– I needed to lower my heart rate. Unai (Laso) was with me, and Jon Marizkurrena. We were calm. At that moment you are aware that you have won but you have to put yourself in the place of the other. Laso has always been respectful to the contrary. When he left, I took a quiet shower and began to enjoy myself.
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How do you analyze the game 24 hours later?
– It is a cliché but many games are played in the same game. It was not easy to get in. Unai made two service fouls and then I didn’t play well the next goal. It is usually good to start with a great goal to loosen up. Until 12-7 I felt good but then he played perfect three or four goals. From then on the final became difficult for me. The score was even but in the game he was more than me. Every time I finished a goal, I reset and focused on the next one without thinking about it. That was key.
“There is a lot of talk about the many that one makes but it is also worth not giving away and I think I won the final for that”
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He already highlighted the mental serenity during the previous …
– It was important. In the first part of the final I was very comfortable and superior in the rally. In the second he was better. If I have learned something from the great pelotaris and the veterans, it is that you have to try to make the largest possible gap in your good moment and resist when the rival is better. There is talk of the many that one makes but it is also worth not giving away and I think I won because of that.
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Laso gave him a gift with 20 of the same. Many times in this situation the player runs wide and you stayed in the txoko and found the ball.
– I could say it was by intuition but I couldn’t. At the previous pitch I got to pot soon. If Laso threw it wide, neither I, nor Usain Bolt, nor anyone else would have arrived. It is true that a stranger made her and when that happens to you, you get the feeling that it is safer to leave her in the txoko. Then we had to hit another six or seven balls and luckily they got into my hand well. That much was worth a lot.
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Was the final past experience helpful to you?
– I do not think so. For Unai it was the first and he too played a match to win. He made merits to win. It is true that he committed two service fouls but he also made two more goals than me. What happens is that I missed four fewer balls. He felt stronger in the second half and when you feel better sometimes you play more aggressive. Maybe that leads you to fail more. I didn’t risk so much, not because I didn’t want to, but because I didn’t feel good attacking. I suffered a lot but it was worth it. Of the five txapelas, it is the one in which it has cost me the most to put my game into practice. That’s also Unai’s merit.
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But you can’t beat Laso without playing well.
– There are days when without thinking everything comes out. Then you say, “how easy, how beautiful.” But days like this Sunday give you a lot as a ballplayer because you find yourself with many difficulties and you have to overcome. But no one will hear from my mouth that I played badly and won. First because it seems to me a lack of respect towards the rival and second because without playing well Laso cannot be beaten. There are many games in a championship: some are brilliant and others in which you have to know how to be.
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Have you seen it on television?
– No. I have seen so many loose in the Teleberri, but with the body that I have I already notice that it was a very hard final and of a lot of tension. I have played tougher games but they have not left me stiff or sore. Today, on the other hand, I find myself crushed, and it is not because of the partying. With none of the previous txapelas I woke up so stiff the next day.
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This time it was with an audience …
– We all want an audience. It was special. We go out with music and a new set of lights. I quite liked it and people were plugged in.
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How does it feel to add five txapelas?
– Joy. But because of what happened yesterday. The old ones are there. So I tried to live in the present and I had a great time with my people, because I don’t know what will happen in the future. Since I was little it seemed to me that some pelotaris were eternal. Farewells like those of Olaizola II are worth to see that everything has a beginning and an end.
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What has changed since your first txapela?
– Four years and many experiences. They have all been good for me to mature. I am comfortable with the path that I am doing. I think that for another four or five years I can learn and improve. If you’re not hungry for improvement, it’s hard to focus on workouts. All the rivals are improving and if you want to beat them, you have to improve.
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Beloki and Irujo are the only ones who had achieved five txapelas at the age of 25. Does that tell you something?
– It’s nice. I did not know, I did not know it. But I have to continue with mine, without focusing my thoughts on the txapelas that I carry. In addition, winning more or less txapelas does not mean that one is better than another. Beware of comparisons. They influence the material, the rivals … The most important thing is that the pelotari offers what he has inside and the pelota player sees the best possible show.
«At that time of 20-20 I couldn’t take it anymore; if Unai threw it wide, neither I, nor Usain Bolt, nor anyone else would have arrived »
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Has a new Laso-Altuna III rivalry been born?
– It seems to me that Unai, with his game and what he did in his first final, is not a flower of a day and will have continuity. But the most difficult thing is to stay and luck also plays a role. Comparisons with Irujo and Olaizola II get us nowhere. Three years ago Irribarria won his first txapela and it seemed that during the next few years he was going to win the two Manomanista finals. Then others have come and won txapelas. Sport is beautiful for that. I have to look at mine and I will try to be there in the fight. I know that against anyone I can lose but against anyone I can also win. If there are better pelotaris, better for all.
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How will you remember this txapela in the future?
– That of a championship with different moments. Also as a beautiful challenge because in 2018 I won the Manomanista – I had just won the Cuatro y Medio in 2017 – and after five months I lost in the Cuatro y Medio. He had never won three individual txapelas in a row (this time he chains Cuatro y Medio in 2020, Manomanista in 2021 and Cuatro y Medio in 2021). It is an illusion. You try to get short-term motivations. Now comes the Couples.
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The weekend starts. Couldn’t you use a parenthesis?
– It would be necessary. This is not good for the head, as much as the txapela gives you strength to continue. My body is destroyed. I’m going to the masseur to loosen up a bit as soon as this interview is over. It is impossible to be the same all year but this is so and that it continues. I will try to make the viewer comfortable in Barcelona.
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