Winston Gordon knows what it takes to win a major Championship on home soil and the Tooting judoka insists he will lay down a marker at next week’s World Championships ahead of a London 2012 charge, writes Daniel Jolly.

Gordon won Commonwealth gold in Manchester back in 2002 but has struggled to back up that performance with just a European bronze in 2006 since.

But after a troubled year with injury, the former Ernest Bevin College pupil is adamant he will be back to his best by the time the Worlds kick-off in Paris on Tuesday.

“It has been a bit of an up and down rollercoaster year but we have got there in the end, and now the last two weeks are tapering down and I am going into it feeling good,” said the 34-year-old.

“With judo anything can happen, I know that on my day I can beat anyone as I have proved in the past so for now getting there in one piece is the main aim.”

Paris is the last major Championships before the Olympics and success across the channel would be the perfect springboard to Gordon’s 2012 gold quest.

“I have been to many major championships but London is where I am desperate to be, I got a taste for that in Manchester fighting in front of a home crowd,” he added.

“That is a phenomenal feeling and I got the gold in Manchester, so with all my family and friends in London is should be great, especially being a London boy as well.”

The British Judo Association is the national governing body for the Olympic sport of judo in Great Britain. Go to britishjudo.org.uk.