The Preliminaries, Day 2

Among the most decorated athletes present in Tashkent, Rafaela Silva (BRA) was one to watch, she always is. She has an Olympic gold and two world golds among her many achievements but has now made the jump up to -63 kg from her usual -57 kg category. This has been the case for the last few tournaments and as with all big changes, time is needed to settle and to learn the new feelings and movements. In Baku she had the misfortune to be drawn early against Jessica Klimkait, herself just testing the water at -63 kg. It was an epic battle but one which the Brazilian ultimately lost. More mat time is needed and so here she is in the Uzbek capital.

She won her first contest, a long fight, on penalties. It was not easy but she now has the grit and endurance to manage the extra weight, strength and power and she is beginning to re-find her place. At 32 years old, it is a brave move, but she’s never been one to shy away from a challenge. She has yet to win a medal on the World Judo Tour since her move up the weights but her intention in Tashkent was clear, to break that spell.

In the round of 16, Silva suffered, though. Momo Tatsukawa stood in front of her and no fight against the Japanese is easy. One slip at mid-lapel or a minor balance issue can be enough to end your run and Silva was made to learn this again, attacking with an osoto-gari which lacked balance and so the osoto-gaeshi came and placed a yuko on the board for Tatsukawa. Silva again left the tatami without a result.

Tatsukawa didn’t fulfil her promise though, beaten by Iva Oberan (CRO) in the quarter-final of a particularly high-level pool. Oberan was down by a single waza-ari score but she knows how to apply pressure and she did so beautifully, pushing Tatsukawa to be penalised 3 times. Oberan arrived at the semi-final and could be forgiven for thinking that much of the hard work of the day is now behind her. However, there she met her second Japanese opponent of the day, Yamaguchi, and it was a step too far for the Croatian.

Silva, although already out, finds herself with an additional complication during her ascent within the new group. 37-year-old Quadros, her teammate and an Olympic medallist from Beijing in 2008, is still in great form. In Tahskent she arrived in the top 8 of the group quite comfortably and so the -63 kg category really does not belong to Silva yet. Quadros lost in the quarter-final against Laura Vasquez Fernandez (ESP) but the repechage awaited and Quadros was able to deal with her Chinese opponent with ease to place herself in the final block.

At -73 kg, home favourite Shakhram Ahadov began explosiveley, throwing his Brazilian opponent for waza-ari and just missing the final vital seconds to convert that on the ground. He took a yuko via osae-komi and although Genro Alves (BRA) piled on the pressure, Ahadov was never going to disappoint his crowd and so he sailed into the quarter-final.

Asadulloev (TJK) put up in incredible fight against Ahadov in the round of 8; in fact it was also against the crowd. Although they appreciate great judo from anyone, they wanted their athlete to win and in the 10 minutes of contest time they endured, the volume of the cheers inside the arena was quite something. They were disapppointed though as the young Tajik acrobat finally won with a tactical advantage. It was a chess match of a fight, fascinating and dynamic.

Asadulloev, however, was unable to sustain his momentum. In the semi-final, Galstian took an immediate grip deep down the back and launched the smoothest uchi-mata, given ippon inside the first ten seconds of the contest. Asadulloev couldn’t believe it!

In the same category, Lavrentev (IJF) and Nomonov (UZB) held their ground as top seeds, making it to their respective semi-final, where Lavrentev finished victorious, ready to join Galstian in the -73 kg final.

At -81 kg, Arbuzov (IJF) and Fujiwara (JPN) arrived at their semi-final having dominated the rest of their half of the draw. Fujiwara could be the first man from the Japanese delegation to take a gold medal, working to keep up with the women of the team who won all categories on day one. It wouldn’t be easy though as Arbuzov has already shown his resilience and endurance.

On the bottom half of the draw, Timo Cavelius (GER) looked to be in great shape. He passed Joao Macedo (BRA) with a neat little ko-uchi-gake to face Tojiev (UZB) in the quarter-final. There though, the home athlete electrified the crowd with a huge hiza-ura-nage to fly into the semi-final, leaving the German to fight it out in the repechage. There he also lost, to Zhubanazar (KAZ), who would ultimately face Fujiwara for a bronze medal. Fujiwara, despite his excellent introduction in the first rounds, couldn’t hold his line against Arbuzov.

In the last category of the day, a devastated Danielle Oliveira (BRA) left the tatami after losing her -70 kg quarter-final to Yuan of China. Oliveira had been leading by a waza-ari and two yuko scores after just the first 75 seconds but Yuan made her play on the floor and held the Brazilian for ippon. The message is never clearer: at the elite end of the process, a judoka absolutely must have expert ne-waza as well as tachi-waza. Having just one of the two will not suffice if consistency is desired.

Below: Oliveira's (BRA) first victory of the day.

Yuan then fell in a similar way, again highlighting the need for consistency. Uzbekistan’s Razzokberdieva held the Chinese athlete from a well drilled turnover to reach her first ever World Judo Tour medal contest, a final, no less.

The final block begins at 5pm local time and will be streamed, as always, on JudoTV.