Men’s -73kg
Nils Stump (SUI) proves once again that when he’s on form, he can beat the best of them. In a very crowded category, he had a total of five fights where he used an assortment of ashiwaza to overcome his opponents. His final match was against a Muhiddin Asadulloev (TJK) who favors a high cross-grip Georgian-style. Stump gave the young Tajik player a taste of his own medicine and threw him with a very Georgian-style pick-up for ippon. This is his fifth IJF World Tour gold.
The USA’s Steven Boldbaatar got a bye in the first round and won his second round match using a very low sasae-tsurikomi-ashi against Rashid Mammadaliyev (AZE) for yuko in the dying seconds of their match. He then lost to Fabrizio Esposito (ITA) by penalties in Golden Score.
Women’s -63kg
Little-known Megu Danno (JPN), a sode-tsurikomi-goshi specialist used a mixture of her favorite throw and some tenacious groundwork to work her way to the final. Her first match was won with the Huizinga Roll and her final match was won with the very same roll.
Men’s -81kg
Canada’s Francois Gauthier Drapeau reigned supreme in this very large category, using a wide range of throwing techniques, most notably, sode-tsurikomi-goshi, osoto-gari and seoi-nage. When needed, he could use groundwork to finish the match. In the final, he threw Abdul-Kerim Tasuev (RUS) with sode-tsurikomi-goshi and osoto-gari for yuko and waza-ari respectively. No ippon but it was enough to win him his first IJF World Tour gold medal.
Ramon Hernandez Jr of the USA lost his first match to Gauthier Drapeau who threw him with a sode-tsurikomi-goshi for ippon.
Women’s -70kg
Sofi Ozbas (HUN) who has been doing quite well since moving up from -63kg to -70kg in August last year, won her third IJF World Tour gold medal using a variety of very low drop techniques. She won her final match, against Aoife Coughlan (AUS) using a very low drop sode for waza-ari in the first minute. This was enough to win her the match.
Melissa Myers of the USA lost her first match to Tamara Lishchenko (RUS) who threw her twice with ouchi-gari, the first time for yuko and then for ippon.
