Marcus Nyman is the new Olympic joker for Sweden

Sweden cheered up by the unexpected victory by Marcus Nyman. Nyman is back in the World Tour with new energy and then nothing seems to be impossible anymore. Marcus Nyman has remerged as a top competitor in the U90kg category as he beat former world silver medallist Toth Krisztian of Hungary to repeat his 2011 Dusseldorf victory.

Former European champion Nyman, 25, outfoxed his younger rival who was penalised on three occasions for passivity and failed to impose himself in the contest. Nyman lost four times earlier against Toth, but today the cards were different, Nyman was the joker this time. The win gives Nyman the edge of teammate Joakim Dvarby based on form in a battle which could go down to the final Olympic qualification event at the World Judo Masters in May.

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.

In the first semi-final world champion Gwak Dong Han (KOR) surprisingly succumb to Abu Dhabi Grand Slam bronze medallist Nyman by a yuko score. Nyman, who defeated Greek great Ilias Iliadis (GEO) by a waza-ari in the quarter-final, deserved the victory as he outfought the Korean who was penalised twice for passivity and slipped into the bronze medal contest. Iliadis got injured on his rib and may be delayed in his Olympic preparation for a few weeks. In the second semi-final Toth was on form as he saw off Abu Dhabi Grand Slam winner Lkhagvasuren Otgonbaatar (MGL) with a waza-ari and almost caught his Mongolian opponent with a juji-gatame but the time ran out on the Hungarian star.

The first bronze medal was awarded to Lkhagvasuren who won the first contest of the final bloc on day three as he defeated 20-year-old former Qingdao Grand Prix bronze medallist Gantulga Altanbagana (MGL). Lkhagvasuren won his third Grand Prix medal at the expense of his teammate by holding down the youngster with a kate-shiho-gatame for ippon. The second bronze medal went to former Tokyo Grand Slam bronze medallist Kim Jae Yun (KOR) as his teammate Gwak could not compete due to injury.

The last victory for Sweden in the World Tour was in July 2015 when Martin Pacek won the Grand Slam of Tyumen. Nyman took the fourth ever victory in the World Tour and with two fifth places Sweden can think about Rio from now with new motivation, nothing is impossible.