-66kg: Chopanov and Piras Make Waves in Olympic Race

First to capitalise was Kazan Grand Slam 2021 winner Murad Chopanov (AIN). In round 2 he defeated Sumiya Lkhagvasuren (MGL), countering an o-soto-gari attempt from the Mongolian using sumi-otoshi to score ippon. He faced Rakhmetkali in round 3, where a waza-ari from an acrobatic sode-tsuri-komi-goshi attack was enough to put him through to the quarter-final and avoid the same fate as An.

In that quarter-final Chopanov came up against Serdar Rahimov (TKM), winner of the category at the Dushanbe Grand Slam a week ago. The contest was over in just 90 seconds as Chopanov countered a seoi-otoshi attempt from his opponent with a simple but highly effective kata-te-jime to submit Rahimov and progress to the semi-final.

There he met Luukas Saha (FIN) who had impressed in the earlier rounds in both the standing and groundwork phases. Saha’s work rate caused Chopanov to pick up two penalties in normal time but in the first exchange of golden score, the Individual Neutral Athlete turned the tables, countering a ko-soto-gake attempt from Saha with o-uchi-gari to score an emphatic ippon.

In the top half of the draw, the two Italians Elios Manzi and Matteo Piras found themselves in pool B, due to meet at the quarter-final stage. The pair were neck-and-neck in the Olympic rankings at the start of the day, so neither could afford an early exit. Unfortunately for Manzi, that’s exactly what happened, as he was thrown for ippon in round 3 by Ismail Misirov (AIN) with the same technique Chopanov had used on Rakhmetkali only minutes earlier.

Piras, having made it to round 3 and having witnessed Manzi’s defeat, faced Yesset Kuanov (KAZ) in the following contest. With renewed motivation, the 30-year-old came out with gusto, throwing his opponent twice in the second minute of the contest with uki-waza and later soto-makikomi to score waza-ari-awasete-ippon. Against Misirov in their quarter-final, the Italian threw using soto-makikomi once more, this time one-handed, to score ippon halfway through the contest and move into the semi-final stages.

There Piras met Kamran Suleymanov (AZE) and his blistering form continued. He threw the Azeri with hikikomi-gaeshi to score waza-ari in the second minute, before throwing again with ko-uchi-gari with just 18 seconds left on the clock, finalising the victory and setting up a second career meeting with Chopanov.

Given the explosive nature of the judo on display from Chopanov and Piras throughout the day, the final was, unsurprisingly, a very open and exciting contest. Piras had the stronger attacks in the opening exchanges but at the end of the second minute, Chopanov produced a powerful utsuri-goshi to throw Piras for a waza-ari score and he immediately followed him onto the ground and held with kata-gatame to score a second waza-ari, winning his second grand slam gold medal. As a result, he will leapfrog Iago Abuladze (AIN) in the Olympic rankings and move straight into a qualifying position. Meanwhile, Piras takes a significant lead over compatriot Manzi with his silver medal.

Saha faced eighth seed Strahinja Buncic (SRB) in the first of the bronze medal contests. Buncic had thrown Misirov earlier with a stunning yoko-gake in their repechage contest. Saha managed the contest extremely well, beating his opponent to the attack on most occasions and only picking up one penalty to Buncic’s two in normal time. 30 seconds into golden score, Saha followed an o-uchi-gari attempt with a seoi-otoshi from the end of the Serbian’s sleeves, scoring an unlikely waza-ari to take the win. This is the Finnish athlete’s first ever medal on the IJF World Judo Tour and moves him to within touching distance of Olympic qualification.

The second bronze medal contest was an all-Azeri affair as Suleymanov took on Ruslan Pashayev, who had defeated Rahimov in their repechage contest. As is often the case in medal fights between athletes who know each other so well, the fight was a tense affair, with few strong attacks in the opening minutes. In the final minute, it was Suleymanov who found a breakthrough moment, countering Pashayev to score waza-ari and hold on for the victory, taking his first ever grand slam medal.