Aslan Lappinagov takes first Grand Slam gold for Russia

At the Grand Slam in Tyumen, Japan ran away with the medal table with a 15-strong team and not one of them are part of their Rio 2016 team but rather Tokyo 2020 hopes. Their seven-strong women’s team won all seven gold medals available while their male counterparts won two gold medals.

Russia, as hosts, were able to enter four judoka in each weight category as they entered a full team of 56 judoka and finished second with a medal haul of three gold medals, 10 silver and 15 bronze medals.

The first gold medal for Russia of the second day was in the category U81kg. Aslan Lappinagov was the hero for Russia as he inflicted the first defeat for Japan in the event’s fascinating series of finals between the hosts and Japan. Jeju Grand Prix winner Sato Seidai (JPN) opposed Lappinagov  as both men were contesting their first Grand Slam final. Russia lost all six head-to-heads with Japan in gold medal contests on Saturday but a last-gasp Lappinagov attack send Sato over for a yuko as he could not climb off the buzzer-beating uchi-mata.  Lappinagov won silver  at the Casablanca African Open this year, but this a title that counts at world level.

The first bronze medal was clinched by Tbilisi Grand Prix winner Alan Khubetsov as former world bronze medallist Ivan Vorobev  was penalised four times in a contest which failed to excite. The second bronze medal was won by Oberwart European Open bronze medallist Stanislav Semenov  who bested former World Judo Masters bronze medallist Ungvari Attila (HUN). The Hungarian had to go off the mat to have fresh applied to cover his right ear and a cut above his right eye due to inadvertent clashes in the previous rounds. Semenov cleverly teased a sankaku-gatame hold but changed his position to capture the loose right arm of the Hungarian and pulled back as the submission came from a juji-gatame.