Beka Gviniashvili gives himself the world title

He was already the best performing European junior ever, but today Georgian starlet Beka Gviniashvili won the World title in Abu Dhabi which he lost last year and had already won in 2013. He waved at the crowd saying goodbye to an amazing junior time, what a great birthday gift for himself and Georgia. After two lost finals earlier in Abu Dhabi, now the gold was for the Georgian team.

World number five on the senior ranking list Beka Gviniashvili powered to the U90kg world title in his final appearance as a junior. Gviniashvili, who turns 20 on Monday, defeated Junior World Championships silver medallist and top seed Nikoloz Sherazadishvili of Spain in the final within 43 seconds. Sherazadishvili was born in Georgia as well and is the prove that Spain is on the right track with the second world finalist in two days. Gviniashvili, who won the second biggest senior competition of the year, the World Masters, in May, took control of his Spanish rival and trapped him with kami-shiho-gatame and the Georgian powerhouse used his considerable frame to keep the pressure on Sherazadishvili for 20 seconds to earn ippon.

“I waved goodbye to everyone because this was my last time to compete as a junior,” the Georgian star told IJF voice Sheldon Franco-Rooks. “It’s my birthday tomorrow so I’ll be celebrating with my team mates tonight.”

In the first semi-final Sherazadishvili defeated Junior European Championships bronze medallist and former Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games winner Mikhail Igolnikov (RUS) with a dramatic ippon from an uchi-mata with 36 seconds left. Igolnikov led by a waza-ari and yuko but Sherazadishvili pressed forward and chased down his opponent until he could win the contest. In the second semi-final Gviniashvili bested German Junior European Championships silver medallist David Tekic by holding down the German judoka for 15 seconds for his second and match-winning waza-ari.

The first bronze medal was won by Junior European Championships bronze medallist Piotr Kuczera (POL) who wrapped up a well-deserved victory against Tekic by trapping him with a mune-gatame hold for 20 seconds to conclude the contest with a minute left on the clock. The second bronze medal was clinched by Firudin Dadashov of Azerbaijan who stunned the highly-rated Igolnikov by ippon after just 40 seconds. Igolnikov and World Championships are not a match yet, but for Gviniashvili it finally is, who knows soon at Senior World Championships. 45 World Champions won the World Junior title first, Ami Kondo did it the other way around. In Astana six World champions had won the World Junior title before.