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Rocky Draksic back with golden confidence for Rio

Rocky Draksic back with golden confidence for Rio

25 Jun 2016 21:55
by Mark Pickering - IJF
European Judo Union / EJU / Copyright: www.eju.net

Former European champion Rok Draksic of Slovenia is back to his best judo after following up on his European bronze medal by winning the Budapest Grand Prix. Draksic has had to dig deep to end a mixed run of results by flying back into form in 2016 and former Cluj Napoca European Open silver medallist Dmytro Kanivets (UKR) was conquered in the U73kg final as the Slovenian pinned the Ukrainian down on the tatami for 20 seconds and ippon.

Draksic looked confident and moved well as he secured control of his opponent and ended up in a tate-shiho-gatame hold. Kanivets will still be delighted with his effort as he won his first IJF World Judo Tour medal and will hope to repeat that achievement on many occasions post-Rio.

The first bronze medal was won by 20-year-old Giorgi Katsiashvili (GEO) who celebrated his first Grand Prix medal by defeating three-time Grand Slam medallist Igor Wandtke (GER) by ippon with a traditionally Georgian style pick-up.

The second and last male bronze medal fight of the first day of competition in Hungary saw Artem Khomula (UKR) deny Gambia what would have been a first Grand Prix medal in their history as Faye Njie (GAM) fell by ippon in the highest profile contest of his career.

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