It should be noted that by arriving in the final, Butbul offered himself a new chance to medal and possibly even win a gold medal, in a career which is already very full, since he has climbed on a World Judo Tour podium 14 times before, including on the second step of the World Judo Masters in Qingdao, China, in 2019.
Butbul's opponent was the 23 year old Azeri judoka Rashid Mammadaliyev. Ranked 144th in the world before the grand prix, he can already be certain of gaining places and entering the top one hundred, a great performance. Was his youth and his ardour enough to shake Tohar Butbul?
After a fairly balanced contest, showing that Mammadaliyev was not impressed by his elder, the golden score period began with one shido apiece. The second penalty for Mammadaliyev came only after two minutes of extra time, putting him a little at risk. It was then Butbul's turn to get his second shido for passivity. The next one would be decisive.
The rest of the final looked a bit like a cat and mouse game with the constant question of who would attack the most and then try to counterattack the most. After 9 minutes and 15 seconds of golden score, the third penalty eventually fell on Mammadaliyev's head. Today we can say that experience paid off for Butbul but it was really close for Mammadaliyev.
Under the impetus of its new coach and the experience of its most experienced competitors, Morocco is beginning to point the tip of its nose towards the front of the rankings quite regularly. While the Moroccan team finished in a very honorable 5th place at the recent World Mixed Team Championships, it was today Hassan Doukkali (MAR) who distinguished himself by qualifying for the first match for a bronze medal against Adil Osmanov (MDA).
The latter scored two beautiful waza-ari with the same combination of movements: a low seoi-nage, almost on his knee, but with the left leg going far inside his opponent's legs for a fully engaged ko-uchi-gari. Doukkali didn't see the first one coming, neither the second. Or was a bronze medal for Adil Osmanov.
To complete the podium, we had to wait for the results of Petru Pelivan’s (MDA) contest against Filio Jovanovic (SRB). Inspired by his teammate’s victory during the first bronze medal contest, it took only a few seconds for Petru Pelivan to execute the perfect sasa-tsuri-komi-ashi for ippon. Two bronze medals went to Modolva today.
Final (-73 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-73 kg)
