On Day 3, two American players got past their first matches: Daniel Liubimovski and Gusmary Garcia Savigne.
Men’s -90kg Division
In Pool A, Alexander Knauf lost his first-round match to Boris Rutovic (SRB), who threw him with sumi-gaeshi in Golden Score. In Pool D, Oleksandr Nyzhnyk was thrown for waza-ari by Guilherme Schimidt using a very unusual, somewhat Georgian-styled tani-otoshi. After that, the Brazilian gained a submission using an equally unusual variation of the katate-jime strangle.
Women’s -78kg Division
The USA did not have any players in the women’s -78kg division.
Men’s -100kg Division
In Pool A, Daniel Liubimovski defeated Samuel Corzo (VEN) with a bear-hug ouchi-gari in Golden Score for yuko. Liubimovski lost his next match, against Leonardo Goncalves (BRA) by hansoku-make in Golden Score after he got his third shido. In Pool D, Jared Causse lost to Giovani Ferreira (BRA), who got four scores on him. He was thrown with a Twitch kosoto for waza-ari and immediately pinned in the first minute of the match. However, he managed to escape after 9 seconds so a yuko was given. Shortly after that he was thrown with soto-makikomi for yuko and had his uchimata countered for waza-ari-awasete-ippon.
Women’s +78kg Division
In Pool D, Gusmary Garcia Savigne defeated Brigitte Carabali (COL) with a drop seoi for yuko in Golden Score. This brought her up against Emma-Melis Aktas (EST) who threw her with ouchi-gari for yuko and then turned her over and pinned her for ippon.
Men’s +100kg
In Pool C, Alex Semenenko got a bye in the first round but was then drawn against double Olympic Champion Lukas Krpalek (CZE) in the second round. He put up a good fight and Krpalek was not able to get an ippon win on him. Semenenko was however thrown with tomoe-nage for yuko midway through the match and that was enough for him to lose the match.
(Photos courtesy of IJF)
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