Iadov (UKR), a judoka who hasn’t medalled on the Tour since February, came out for his first contest like a rocket. Attacks, super-fast gripping and an unmatchable pace put him in a great position and his Moldovan opponent simply couldn’t keep up. A strangle was applied and the win went to the blue and yellow flag, giving him a second round contest against home favourite Tal Flicker, just one member of a strong Israeli delegation which is feeding from its home crowd support. Iadov tried to transfer his energy from the first round but Flicker unloaded it without compromise, almost throwing him twice in the first half of the fight. Iadov looked lost and Flicker just kept coming. The shido game on the scoreboard could be ignored because there would undoubtedly be a positive action to decide it and in the first exchange of golden score it came. Flicker wrapped himself around Iadov with a koshi-guruma no-one could have escaped. A cheer from the spectators followed the Israeli off the tatami and into a quarter-final against the Uzbek, Nurillaev. That wasn’t to be an easy contest!
Nurillaev wants to win, there’s no other way to say it. He had already dispatched Postigos (PER) and Gobert (FRA) and it was the Frenchman who evicted the number 3 seed, Olympic silver medallist Margvelashvili (GEO) in the opening round. What a quarter! Two unseeded judoka came through, with the winner booking a semi-final with the gentleman himself, Yondonperenlei, who respected the ranking more than them.
True to form, Flicker and Nurillaev each came with confidence knowing they would win but both men could not be correct. The Israeli turned out to be the one with the incorrect assessment and the Uzbek took the win on a third shido in golden score after Flicker ducked the grip against the rules. Iliadis, in the matside chair, looked calm, as if expecting nothing less, regardless of the quality of opponent.
With Flicker gone, the other home candidate was under pressure to succeed. He was the winner in round one and then again in round two, with a massive seoi-nage to gain a place in the quarter-final. Tilovov (UZB) will be his challenge but to that point Shmailov was playing to the seeding. Tilovov was not, taking Gaitero-Martin, a seasoned medallist on the Tour, out of contention, despite himself only having one medal on the Tour in the last 4 years. Tilovov was no match for Shmailov though and the Israeli pleased the crowd by throwing big and giving them the semi-final they wanted: Israel versus Moldova. Denis Vieru could be under pressure with that, even though he had not put a foot wrong in the earlier rounds.
Baruch Shmailov (ISR) is a fighter, no doubt and massively supported by the public, who were chanting and cheering loudly. He scored the first waza-ari of the final, against Daikii Bouba of France, who so far had no significant result on the World Judo Tour. The Frenchman tried, nobody can argue but today was Shmailov's day and after incredible preliminary rounds, he kept throwing. This was the case again with a left-handed o-soto-gari for waza-ari. The hosts have their medal and it is a golden one. The Masters are already a success!
In the first bronze medal contest, Walide Khyar (FRA) and Sardor Nurillaev (UZB) could not do better than reaching golden score with a few shido to their names. The one in the most risky position was Khyar with two shido but after 30 seconds Nurillaev also received his second penalty. This was when the extraordinary happened, a massive throw from Khyar, which was awarded a waza-ari, enough to win the bronze medal, but what a judo technique, which all observers had problems to name, as it was so incredible. Eventually the answer came from IJF Refereeing Director, Florin Daniel Lascau, “It was uki-otoshi.” No matter what the technique was, it was beautiful.
The second bronze medal contest opposed Baskhuu Yondonperenlei (MGL) by Denis Vieru (MDA), with two totally different styles. On one side, Yondonperenlei with his really rough but effective judo, a combination of wrestling and close combat, and on the other side, the purist, Vieru, admired for his straight posture and precise, stylish technique. In the end it was Vieru with a thunderous ko-uchi-gari for ippon who won the bronze medal.
Final (-66 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-66 kg)
