Finals Last day GP Dusseldorf with enough German entertainment

At the last day of the Grand prix in Düsseldorf the home crowd gets what it deserves, two German finallists Luise Malzahn and Dimitri Peters. Especially Luise Malzahn was the expected judoka in the final block. In a top final she will face French nemesis Audrey Tcheumeo. The former World Champion and 2012 Olympic medallist defeated Malzahn six times, but the last match became a victory for Malzahn in the match for bronze at the World Championships in Astana.

Dimitri Peters will face Jose Armenteros of Cuba. Peters was the winners in a strong pool with Henk Grol who defeated 2013 World Champion Elkhan Mammadov. Peters beat Grol in an interesting match where Peters first won the match but his ippon was called back and in the rebound he won afterall with a strangle. Peters was better than Adlan Bisultanov of Russia in the semi final. Both Peters and Armenteros have never met before. The last and only time that Peters medalled was in 2011 when he took silver, that may still be in the head of Peters who is in a competition with Karl-Richard Frey who is ill today and couldn’t compete.

In the women’s plus category the final is between Yu Song of China and Maria Suelen Altheman of Brazil. Yu won two times, Altheman won twice as well, but for the last time in 2013, since then the Chinese has become a lot stronger and she is the favourite to take the gold. The World champion also won last week in Rome.

In the category U90kg Marcus Nyman is today’s absolute sensation. Nyman was super talented in 2010 when he won the European title aged 19, in 2011 he won the Grand Prix in Düsseldorf. After that he had a rough time after the Olympic Games and even wanted to quit judo, but came back in 2014 in the world tour. Today he defeated five opponents among triple World Champion Ilias Iliadis and current World Champ Gwak Dong Han of Korea. Nyman will face Krisztian Toth who can use a gold medal, just for the confidence. He suffered an injury and had to give up his world leading position that he had until August 2015. Still in the top he will now pick up the pace with this success, gold or silver. Likely it’s gold as Toth defeated Nyman four times, three times in 2015, but Nyman isn’t the usual Nyman, today fights at Olympic level.

Egypt have a finalist in Islam El Shehaby +100kg. His last victory in the World Tour dates of May 2011, although he is safe for Rio qualification, but he can push himself safely into the top 8. His opponent will be Iakiv Khammo the talented Ukrainian who defeated Kim Sung-Min in the semi. The finalist of the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi can take the first gold since May 2015 in Zagreb. Both judoka never met before. Showtime!