Olympic hope for Oberwart medallists

Otgonbaatar Uuganbaatar added a second gold medal for his country Mongolia at the European Open in Oberwart on Sunday. In an all Mongolian final U81kg Otgonbaatar Uuganbaatar defeated Nyamsuren Dagvasuren. The category U81 was packed with 45 judoka with two Mongolian finallists.

It seems a lot, but in 2014 49 athletes were in this category and in 2012 even 61, a record still on the event of Oberwart, the most participants ever in any World Cup U81kg. In 2012 this event was dominated mainly by European fighters. In four years’ time that has all shifted to Asia. Also in this edition where Asia won four out of seven categories.

U81kg Saeid Mollaei of Iran won bronze. His team mate Javad Mahjoub won gold U100kg. Mahjoub overcame Arsen Omarov (RUS) in the final.

The medal chances today for Austria were supposed to go to Marcel Ott U81kg and to Daniel Allerstorfer +100kg. But Ott finished fifth and Allerstorfer finished quickly in his first match against the later winner Ushangi Kokauri of Azerbaijan, a revenge for his loss in Havana. The former Georgian fighter was seventh last week in Paris and this time he defeated four out his five opponents by ippon. Aslan Kambiev of Russia lost after three minutes in the final.

Gabor Ver of Hungary is in a good form. He won bronze in Sofia two weeks ago, and this time he won all his five matches. Ver defeated triple Olympian and double Olympic medallist Tiago Camilo of Brazil in the semi final. Camilo won bronze after all and was joined by two Polish fighters. Piotr Kuczera won silver U90kg, one place higher than Polish highest ranked fighter Patryk Ciechomski. Young Kuczera who won bronze at the World Junior Championships seems to be the man for the future, although Ciechomski is still ahead of Kuczera.

Compared to the 2014 edition, no athlete could prolong a medal and Oberwart 2016 delivered 32 new medallists with Mongolia as most successful golden nation. The Brazilian team was strong with five medals, one more than in 2014.

In 2012 Oberwart delivered three later Olympic medallists in London, that gives hope to Ludwig Paischer, Tiago Camilo, Felipe Kitadai or Faicel Jabbalah, some of the higher ranked athletes who picked up a useful medal in Oberwart this weekend.