Polish Damian Szwarnowiecki jumps from 66 to 31 in the World Ranking

All of a sudden Damian Szwarnowiecki offered Poland a position to have two men at the Olympic Games. The former double European U23 champion won the Grand Prix in Samsun and last week he was still ranked 66, today he is 31st and 25th in the Olympic ranking. Szwarnowiecki can accompany Maciej Sarnacki in the men’s team for Poland in Rio. In this stage they are the two qualified athletes. With a slight miracle Beta or Zagrodnik can qualify for continental quote, or could Lukasz Blach can be the next man in Rio. Katarzyna Klys and Daria Pogorzelec are the female choices for Poland. Everything seems possible in Poland as the sentiment completely turned.

No major changes in the top 10 U60kg, only a few corrections after the decrease of the points of the Grand Prix in Samsun last in 2015 and 2014. Winner Bekir Ozlu of Turkey is now 19th at the World Ranking

Rishod Sobirov fell out of the top 10 U66kg after reduction of last year’s points in Samsun. Last week he was ranked 6, now 11. Samsun Winner Kim Lim-Whan is the second best Korean at 24, behind leader An.

U81kg Ivaylo Ivanov of Bulgaria did some good business winning in Samsun and he jumped once more from 10 to 6. He changed position with Loic Pietri who goes from 6 to 10.

In the category U90kg Liparteliani swopped with Noel van ‘t End from 3 to 2. The Dutchman won last year in Samsun and lost points. For the same reason Alexandre Iddir goes from 8 to 10.  22-Year old Khusen Khalmurzaev got an upgrade from 41 to 25 this week due to his gold medal in Samsun.

Elmar Gasimov is still at 1 despite his early loss against Beka Gviniashvili. The Georgian is still at place 7 U90kg but rises tremendously in the ranking U100kg, this week he goes from 39 to 29 and in the Olympic Ranking he is at place 25, clean even at 20 and some can still lose points at the continental championships. With the continental championships and the Baku Grand Slam Gviniashvili might even be able to qualify for the invitational IJF Masters, although Gviniashvili hasn’t yet met Frey, Maret, Peters, Krpalek and other higher ranked athletes.

No serious changes O100kg where two Japanese are now in the top three behind Teddy Riner. Sadly enough only one can go and at last week’s All japan Championships Harasawa again defeated Shichinohe. Harasawa hasn’t fought Riner yet, or will they keep that match open until the Olympic Games?