-81kg: Amano Launches for Japan on Day 3

In Portugal his path was not so smooth, with the Japanese athlete, Izawa, ranked at a distant 35th in the world, as opposed to the Italian’s pole position, standing steadfast between him and a chance to medal here too. The contest could have been a final but in the end one had to lose and it was Maddaloni Nosa.

Izawa, surprisingly, did not follow through as was expected, losing out against the unorthodox Georgian style of Loladze. Izawa is not entirely new to European judo though as he was the gold medallist at the Paris junior European Cup earlier this year and therefore today’s semi-final loss will undoubtedly be full of lessons for him as he develops.

On the bottom half of the draw, Izawa’s compatriot, Amano, eliminated Kazakh number 3 seed Meiirlan Maxim early and then took care of Arbuzov in the semi-final. Unlike his teammate, Amano did push through to the final and ahead of the final block looked comfortable and ready to earn the gold. Perhaps Loladze is one of very few who could have challenged him here.

The final started with a first shido for stepping out of the competition area for Loladze. The first sequence on the floor allowed Amano to demonstrate all his skills with a powerful turnover concluded with an immobilisation and subsequently an armlock for ippon. After a second day without a gold medal for Japan, Amano reopened the impressive Japanese harvest.

The first bronze medal would be awarded to either Mlady (CZE) or Arbuzov (AIN), both of whom showed explosive judo through the morning session. Despite having the stronger grip, Arbuzov was penalised first for not attacking, while Mlady received his first penalty for passivity a few seconds later. He was again penalised with a shido before being thrown with a massive ashi-guruma for ippon, securing the bronze medal for Timur Arbuzov.

The second bronze medal was decided between current junior European bronze medallist Rajabli (AZE) and Izawa (JPN). In a pure Japanese style, Izawa launched a first standing seoi-nage that didn't score but that gave him the hope of a second more successful one, which actually came to fruition. There was a waza-ari this time, immediately followed by some nice groundwork and a turnover for an immobilisation for ippon. The bronze medal was for Naoto Izawa of Japan.