Germany strong at prelims day two at GP Budapest

German athletes qualified for three finals today at the Grand Prix in Budapest. Laura Vargas-Koch was able to reach the final after a victory against Sanne van Dijke (NED) U70kg, she will now face Rodriguez Elvismar of Venezuela who defeated Karen Nun-Ira of Japan in the semi. Both are qualified for the Olympic Games.

Carolin Weiss reached the final for heavyweight women in Budapest. Weiss defeated World Champion Yu Song of China but will face another Chinese, Yu’s good replacement Ma Sisi. Both can show they belong at the Olympic Games, but will not be on the tatami in Rio.

Former World and current Olympic Champion Kayla Harrison is in the final U78kg, her opponent is Ana Velensek from Slovenia, who is building up her shape. Harrisons shape was undisputed. She defeated Dutch Karen Stevenson in the semi whilst Velensek defeated Hungarian Olympic ouitsider Abigel Joo.

In the men’s division Sven Maresch is the third German to be in the final. U81kg he will face Ivan Nifontov who wasn’t chosen in the Olympic selection for Rio. Nifontov overcame Bojan Dosen of Serbia in the semi and Maresch beat Ebi Yasuhiro of Japan. Maresch showed some good judo today in Budapest, but Nifontov will be full of eagerness to take the gold here.

Home favourite Kristzian Toth is in the final for men U90kg. Last year he didn’t compete due to an injury, but now he shows his homecrowd good judo and defeated Max Stewart in the semi final. Stewart will fight Kirill Denisov, one of those favourites for an Olympic medal as well. Good practice for the Briton. Toth will meet Mihael Zgank of Slovenia in the final. Zgank defeated title defender Celio Dias of Portugal in the semi. Slovenia is doing really well this tournament with two gold and silver on Saturday.

Uzbek Soyib Kurbonov will fight young Dutchman Michael Korrel in the final for men U100kg. Korrel was able to beat former World Champion Elkhan Mammadov and Kurbonov defeated Karl-Richard Frey who was the favourite to take the title in Budapest.

The heavyweight final delivered Japanese Katsuma Ueda versus Stanislav Bondarenko of the Ukraine. Ueda beat German Olympian Andre Breitbarth in the semi final and Bondarenko overcame Freddy Figueroa from Ecuador.