Technical Analysis, Day 4: Underdogs and Metamorphosis / IJF.org

Emanuele Di Feliciantonio is among the best in the world at what he does. He’s a sports photographer and has covered world championships and Olympic Games and has marched a route through Italian judo, the European Judo Union and now the world stage, with the IJF, benefits from his expertise. Taking pretty pictures can be done by many but producing works of art that also stand as archives and pieces of history, while also conveying the exact emotions of a moment frozen on screen, takes skill alongside an accurate feeling for the judo. Emanuele, always ready to talk about judo, offered his view of the 4th day of this world championships. “I see finally that Grigalashvili finds his maturity, winning the quarter and semi in very different ways from normal. He didn’t expose himself, being much more patient and this has been a challenge for him in the past. What we have seen from him is incredible. The final was almost a replay of the 2021 final with Casse. With his new fight management ability, it is interesting. It means in Paris 2024 he will now have no excuse at all.

Tato wins the gold!

I was happy to see Matthias Casse again in wonderful shape. It has been a long time since I saw him so focussed and strong and with very few mistakes. He has won, such as wearing the red backpatch to fight today, but this performance is much more like his best moments of the past.

At -63kg the Japanese competitor seemed very complete despite her newness at this level. She hasn’t appeared on a world stage since the 2013 junior worlds, although she does have 3 grand slam gold medals but even that statistic contains an anomaly. She won in Tokyo in 2012 but not again until the two events she won earlier this year, a ten year gap! She is a nice surprise in the category today. Although we can usually count on Japan, when a new member of the team arrives at the foot of the world podium, it is always just as exciting as if someone came from anywhere else. The Japanese are not the underdogs and we all have passion for those but a new star arriving is wonderful no matter where they come from.

Horikawa wins her first senior world medal

The Canadian proved her consistency and made it to a final that she really deserved. It’s a fitting reward at this stage of her career, after so many good results. She has a junior world bronze from 2014 but this is her first medal at the senior version.

In the women’s category the world number one, Lucy Renshall (GBR), seemed to begin the day strongly, wanting to replicate the result of her teammate Chelsie Giles who won silver on day 2 but a lack of adaptability pushed her out of the running and she had to settle for 7th place. Being able to assess and adapt on the move is an essential part of being successful at the top level and it was missing for her today.

Lucy Renshall falls short

I have to add a note for someone who really stood out for me. I was very sorry for the Dominican at -81kg as he fought excellently and maybe with a different draw on a different day, he could have brought a special moment for Pan America. I look forward to seeing him on a podium soon.”

Del Orbe was impressive in Tashkent

With day 4 complete and half of the Tashkent World Championships already behind us, we can confirm that the best judo in the world is on display in Uzbekistan right now. Day 5 brings the -70kg and -90kg categories and to be honest, we can’t wait!