Dovdon Altansukh boosts Mongolia’s golden streak with personal best

Asian Championships winner Dovdon Altansukh won his country’s fourth gold medal on day one of the Grand Prix in Ulaanbaataras he was successful in the battle of the Mongolian judoka in the U66kg final.

Dovdon met former Oberwart European Open silver medallist Adiya Batsuuri (MGL) in the gold medal contest and it was top seed Dovdon who made the greatest impression by trapping his teammate in osaekomi with five seconds left on the clock and Adiya elected to tap out.

In the first semi-final Dovdon defeated Battogtokh Erkhembayar (MGL) on shido penalties as the latter did well to go the distance with his teammate. Dovdon eventually came through on shido penalties 2:3 as Battogtokh contained his opponent for all five minutes but was made to pay for his errors. In the second semi-final Adiya triumphed against Prague European Open winner Andraz Jereb (SLO) after a thrilling contest which ended with a left-sided uchi-mata from the Mongolian. Two yukos from Jereb proved to be a consolation as Adiya booked his place in the final by wazari-awasette-ippon.

The first bronze medal was won by Jereb who saw off former Baku Grand Slam silver medallist Vugar Shirinli (AZE) who is still best remembered for throwing three-time Olympic champion Nomura Tadahiro (JPN) twice for waza-ari towards the end of the Japanese legend’s career. Jereb went in front with a yuko from a ko-uchi-gari and followed up with the hold-down as the Azeri could not escape the mune-gatame hold. The second bronze medal went to Tyumen Grand Slam bronze medallist Askhat Telmanov (KAZ) who defeated home fighter Battogtokh after a ura-nage from the former decided the contest. Both judoka exchanged shido penalties for passivity before the speed and conviction of the attack from Telmanov caught the Mongolian by surprise which made him bridge and that is given ippon to discourage a fighter from attempting this defensive manoeuvre to protect the safety of the competitors.