Sensational victory Elios Manzi at Grand Prix Almaty

Italian sensation Elios Manzi captured the gold medal in at the Grand Slam in Almaty. His opponent in the final against Kazach home favourite Rustam Ibrayev. The European bronze medallist Elios Manzi, again showed great judo and the Italian youngster and was able to defeat Sharafuddin Lutfillaev in the semi final.

Against number one seed Rustam Ibrayev, the world’s number two of last World Championships, Manzi started quickly in 30 seconds with a yuko score. He was able to defend the attacks of Ibrayev, but kept working and scored another for ippon seoi nage, an amazing performance. Ibrayev overcame Urozboev in the semi final and proved his reputation, but couldn’t score against the Italian talent who couldn’t believe this amazing performance against the vice World champion.

Ibrayev won the Grand Slam of Baku last year, and also collected six bronze medals, which means that he lost his first of 8 final block matches against Young Manzi.

Uzbek lightweight Sharafuddin Lutfillaev won the bronze bout against Kazach Aibek Imashev due to a wazari for an uchimata. The second bronze was reserved for the second Uzbek star Diyorbek Urozboev who defeated neighbor Askhat Telmanov of Kazachstan with tome nage, so the home crowd had to be satisfied with silver for Ibrayev.