After Antalya now Abdulzhalilov strikes in Ekaterinburg with gold

Abdula Abdulzhalilov of Russia made his Grand Slam outing count on Saturday as he methodically worked his way to the top of the U66kg medal podium. Abdulzhalilov won the Grand Prix in Antalya in April as well and seems to be a good choice for Russia on this category.

The Russian judoka won his country’s first gold medal at their home Grand Slam when two-time Grand Slam winner Charles Chibana of Brazil attempted to turn out of a throw by bridging and that is not legal due to the risk of injury for the athlete and the Brazilian was disqualified.

In the first semi-final Tokyo Grand Slam bronze medallist Dovdon Altansukh (MGL) succumb to Abdulzhalilov with a booming seoi-nage for ippon. In the second semi-final Chibana dramatically came from behind to deny Tbilisi Grand Prix bronze medallist Yakub Shamilov (RUS) a home final. The Brazilian trailed to a waza-ari from a tani-otoshi but with six seconds left on the clock the former picked up his Russian rival and dispatched him for ippon.

The first bronze medal contest saw Junior European Championships winner Dzmitry Minkou of Belarus beat Dovdon by ippon for his first Grand Slam podium. The 20-year-old shocked his accomplished Mongolian opponent by ippon as Belarus were off the mark in Ekaterinburg. Dovdon should have been warned as Minkou also bested number one seed Davaadorj in the second round.

In the second bronze medal contest Casablanca African Open winner Islam Khametov (RUS) edged out Shamilov (RUS) by a waza-ari to grace the medal podium.