Maximum conversion for Renat Saidov in 2016

It was a good weekend for the Russian men, three gold medals U66kg, U81kg and Renat Saidov won the gold +100kg. Not a bad start for the Russian team that has to solve a few luxury problems, but some categories are clear, Saidov has no serious international competition in his country and this gold in Havana is another milestone that he will be acting in Rio de Janeiro in August. In London Alexander Mikhailin took the maximum silver.

In the absence of Teddy Riner, unquestionable world number one, who will be back on the tatami in Paris in a few weeks from now, the last final of the day and of the event opposed the veteran and winner of the 2015 Baku Grand Slam, Bor Barna of Hungary and the giant Renat Saidov of Russia, both athletes having been the two top seeded competitors of the category.

If Bor Barna stepped out of the tatami with a big smile, it was not because he won the title, but actually because he lost. That might sound surprising, but Saidov’s uchi-mata was so perfect and so sudden (6 seconds only) that the Hungarian could only smile, first at his mistake, but also at the fantastic opportunist attack of the Russian giant.

The first bronze medal contest of the men’s heavyweights saw the second Russian, Andrey Volkov (RUS) facing the local Alex Garcia Mendoza (CUB). After a minute, both athletes were already penalised with a shido when Garcia Mendoza engaged a o-uchi-gari for yuko, which he could keep until the end of the contest to add one more medal for Cuba.

For the second bronze medal contest, the bronze medallist of the last Tashkent Grand Prix 2014, Daniel Allerstorfer (AUT) was opposed to Andre Breitbarth (GER), who already obtained a bronze medal in Abu Dhabi last season. Less than a minute was enough for Breitbarth to score a superb de-ashi-barai for waza-ari before concluding with an arm-lock.