-73kg: Positivity Comes in Different Forms

Levin did not have an easy path ahead of him but let’s face it, this is the Masters and if he wants to play with the big kids, he must be prepared to face their full might; no-one has it easy at the Masters. Shavdatuashvili, the number one, the triple Olympic medallist, is in his quarter. C’est la vie. Levin lost his next match against Turoev (UZB), receiving a huge osoto-gari but then Shavdatuashvili lost in his next contest too, being dealt two waza-ari by Olympic medallist Cargnin (BRA), a ko-uchi-gake and then a seoi-otoshi. Levin and Lasha were never destined to meet! 

Butbul, elsewhere in the draw, the number 2 seed, succumbed to a neat little ko-uchi from Pelivan (MDA) and lost his expected place in the quarter-final. The crowd seemed to not react but they were probably stunned, a little deflated. Butbul was their man today; out! Pelivan then also lost. 

In pool D the two Italians had a pretty horrible time of it, with round 2 bringing defeat to Esposito at the hands of Smagulov (KAZ) and after a tense 50-50 situation it was former world champion Lombardo who had to bow out and send Nomonov (UZB) to the quarters. Nomonov was then the victor of victors and one of his teammates would be his opposition in the Masters semi-final. 

The other semi-final could still have completed an all Uzbek line-up, with Cargnin facing Turaev and Margelidon (CAN) facing Yuldoshev in the top two quarter-finals but neither Uzbek judoka here was willing to meet a compatriot in the final and so when Akhadov won his semi, he sent a third Uzbek to fight for a single bronze. Yesterday team Azerbaijan did similar and so the only guarantee from that moment was that there would be two judoka from Uzbekistan on the -73kg podium, Akhadov and one other. 

For the first bronze medal Yuldoshev took only 20 seconds to execute a low sumi-gaeshi and take the medal from his teammate and friend Nomonov. Yuldoshev turned down requests for celebration with the crowed and instead waited for his friend so that they could leave the arena arm in arm. His priorities and values were clear. 

In the second bronze medal contest Margelidon (CAN) came out with a strategy to not give Pelivan (MDA) even an inch of space. He closed down the gripping in a dynamic way, chased the scores, followed with blistering transition, like a limpet never letting go. Little over a minute in and he scored with a low o-uchi-gari. He continued in the same way with Pelivan looking more baffled by the second. He was completely out-played and then began to receive penalties too, for stepping it and gripping infringements. It was a masterful performance from the Canadian and display of intelligence that really deserved the reward of a medal. 

The final between Cargnin and Akhadov was acrobatic at times but with cautious undertones. Both men wanted to throw for the gold but understood the risks of trying. It didn’t stop them from going ahead but it was clearly a consideration.

At full time the Uzbek was 2 shido down while Cargnin had only one and so the pace rose as Akhadov came forward. A low tai-otoshi from the Brazilian came twice but without a score, however it was enough to offer his opponent a third shido. We want positive scores but even without them we can still win tends positive judo and that’s what we had here. The gold was for Cargnin but both of them have of their best on day 2 in Jerusalem.