Men’s -90kg
Double Olympic Champion Lasha Bekauri (GEO) fulfilled expectations and won this category handily. In doing so, he used a variety of unorthodox, Georgian-styled techniques, including in the final where he threw Mihail Latisev (MDA) with another set of Georgian-styled techniques. This was his sixth IJF World Tour gold.
The USA’s John Jayne and Kell Berliner both lost their first matches, by a strangle and sumi-gaeshi, respectively.
Women’s -78kg
Anna Monta Olek (GER) won her sixth IJF World Tour gold medal defeating the reigning Olympic Champion Alice Bellandi (ITA) in the final. It was a close match with both players having two shidos each when the match went into Golden Score. A failed ouchi-gari attempt by Bellandi allowed Olek to turn her into a sankaku hold-down. Since it was Golden Score, all she needed was a 5-second pin to win the match. And she did it.
Men’s -100kg
It was an All-Russian final featuring former World Champion Arman Adamian and newcomer Idar Bifov whose only previous IJF World Tour event was the Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam where he came in fifth place. Yet it was Bifov who scored first, with a kosoto-gake for waza-ari near the mid-point mark. It took Adamian another minute before he was able to score with uchimata. But only a yuko was given. Just as it looked like there would be an upset happening, with just about 15 seconds left in the match, Adamian scored a waza-ari with ouchi-gari, giving him the win.
Women’s +78kg
The rather diminutive Miki Mukunoki (JPN) blitzed her way to the final using uchimata throughout. The height she was able to achieve with her uchimata was impressive given her short stature. In the final, she met the considerably bigger and taller Niu Xinran (CHN), who had won gold at the Tashkent Grand Slam earlier in the year. It was scoreless in regular time and they went into Golden Score with two shidos each. But it wasn’t another penalty that decided the match. Within a minute, Mukunoki went in with a massive uchimata for ippon.
Men’s +100kg
Gonchigsuren Batkhuyag (MGL) didn’t have such a hard time getting into the final but once there he met the very tough World Silver Medalist Tamerlan Bashaev (RUS). Batkhuyag scored a yuko with tani-otoshi as they approached the three-minute mark and maintained that lead until the end of the match to secure his fourth IJF World Tour gold.
