Florin Daniel Lascau, 1991 world champion and now Head Referee Director of the IJF, has been taking care of the Referee Supervisors and overseeing technical aspects of the contests. His review of any competition day is thorough and evidenced and always feeds into the professional development of the whole refereeing team. Here are his comments from day 2.
“In tachi-waza it was noticed that there was particularly intensive fighting for the grips. As soon as domination of the opponent’s grip was achieved, immediately in that moment, the search for the single direct attacks began, with some leading to good combinations too. Due to the long time offered in the ground work situations, the applications of osaekomi-waza, shime-waza and kansetsu-waza were successful. In one particular contest we saw a ne-waza ippon score that was achieved after a 58-second intensive, continuous and skilful combination of kuzere-kesa-gatame into juji-gatame. This is only possible when the judoka stay proactive and the referees are strong enough to allow the action to continue. It worked excellently today.
-63kg
Cabana (ESP) won the quarter-final with neat transition from koshi-guruma to kesa-gatame and after another win in the semi-final against Harachi (MAR) found her place in the final, meeting Fazliu (KOS) who had countered with o-soto-gaeshi in her quarter-final before taking an easy win in the semi-final too. The gold medal was won by Fazliu who managed to throw with soto-makikomi in golden score.
Belkadi (ALG) and Oberon (CRO) won the bronzes; the former with a sumi-gaeshi into osae-komi and the latter on penalties. I noticed Oberon use an ashi-guruma performed in a circular movement earlier in the day and was impressed by it, very stylish judo.
1. FAZLIU Laura (KOS)
2. CABANA PEREZ Cristina (ESP)
3. BELKADI Amina (ALG) and OBERON Iva (CRO)
-70kg
On the way to final Landolsi (TUN) won her quarter-final in golden score against Teltsidou (GRE) and won the semi-final due to a disqualification. Tsunoda Roustant (ESP) threw Samardzic (BIH) with seoi-nage in the quarter-final and after an almost eight minute contest threw Pogachick with koshi-guruma. In final she won the gold medal with an ippon-seoi-nage in the dying seconds.
In the bronze medal contest between Teltsidou and Pogacnik (SLO), it was won on penalties in favour of the Greek judoka.
Esposito (ITA) won her first contest against Issoufi (FRA) well but ended up in the repechage, eventually winning the bronze medal by fusen-gachi.
1. TSUNODA ROUSTANT Ai (ESP)
2. LANDOLSI Nihel (TUN)
3. TELTSIFOU Elisavet (GRE) and ESPOSITO Martina (ITA)
-73kg
Dris (ALG) eliminated Cullhaj (ALB) and then Bayan (SYR) and in the semi-final won in golden score by waza-ari with kata-guruma.
On the other side of the draw Doukkali (MAR) made his way to the final, passing Andreou (CYP), Hojak (SLO) and then in the semi-final he won in just two minutes with waza-ari-awesete-ippon, both scores from uchi-mata. The final was won by Doukkali.
The first bronze medal contest was won by Ben Chalbi (TUN) who threw Tsoutlasvili of Greece with sumi-otoshi and o-uchi-gari for a place on the podium.
A big surprise came when Italy’s Superman Lombardo pinned down Abushagur (LBA) in the first minute with kata-gatame but then lost and had to settle for a place in the repechage. He won one contest there but was beaten by Gjakova (KOS), meaning a 5th place finish.
1. DRIS Messaoud Radouane (ALG)
2. DOUKKALI Hassan (MAR)
3. BEN CHALBI Aleddine (TUN) and GJAKOVA Akil (KOS)
-81kg
Albayrak (TUR) was in fine form all day and showed no signs of cracking. With both tachi-waza and ne-waza wins he made his way confidently to the final, where he made the difference with waza-ari given for a well timed o-uchi-gari. This gave Bedel (ITA) the silver medal.
Throughout the category were a wide variety of techniques both standing and on the ground, with particularly enjoyable moments such as Sherifovski’s (MKD) the juji-gatame against Hajji (TUN) and Rodrigues’ (POR) combination of tomoe-nage with o-uchi-gari against Mountii (MAR) in the repechage.
Urquiza Solana (ESP) won’t be first bronze with ko-uchi-makikomi. Gnamien (FRA) won the other bronze medal with two waza-ari, one from a big ura-nage and the second for a seoi-nage.
1. ALBAYRAK Vedat (TUR)
2. BEDEL Kenny Komi (ITA)
3. URQUIZA SOLANA Alfonso (ESP) and GNAMIEN Tizie (FRA)
After two days of competition 7 countries have won gold medals and fourteen have stepped on to the podium in total. There’s more to come from day 3 in Oran and a final medal tally to count.
Photos © Hamza Harichane