Dai Aoki celebrates first IJF Tour victory

In the Grand Prix of Budapest for men U60kg the gold medal for Japanese Dai Aoki who won the first IJF gold medal of his career. He defeated Tashkent Grand Prix bronze medallist Otar Bestaev (KGZ). Aoki was fifth at the Tokyo Grand Slam last year and returned to the IJF circuit in Budapest with medal ambitions which were realised in only his third appearance on the IJF World Judo Tour.

Aoki trapped the vastly-experienced Bestaev on the tatami and held his opponent there in osaekomi for 20 seconds and ippon. The victory meant that Japan made a perfect start to the competition by winning the first male and female finals in Budapest as they typically set a rampant pace on the world stage.

The first bronze medal fight was won by 21-year-old Prague European Open silver medallist Cedric Revol (FRA) as he defeated Junior world bronze medallist Irakli Kupatadze (GEO). Revol won his first Grand Prix medal at his first attempt by a waza-ari score and both judoka could become fixtures in this category in the next Olympic cycle towards Tokyo 2020.

The second bronze medal fight of the men’s -60kg category saw Almaty Grand Prix bronze medallist and top seed Sharafuddin Lutfillaev (UZB) defeat Ilgar Mushkiyev (AZE). Lutfillaev made the better start and Mushkiyev was overzealous when he attacked as he was disqualified for a leg grab to gift the bronze medal to the Uzbek star who needs to assistance from his opponents.