Surprises in final phase Judo men U81kg

A surprising tournament for the men’s U81kg category, as expected as the competition is awesome with so many judo stars around. Still most of the usual suspects came up in the quarter finals. We lost some casualties in the prerounds such as Moustopoulos, Bottieau, Lee, De Wit, Pietri and Otgonbaatar and Penalber. Nonetheless Tchrikishvili and Nagase were still lined up for their road to the final with Khalmurzaev surviving keen in the slipstream.

It was however Sergiu Toma (UAE) who cashed in the biggest shock by defeating World Champion Takanori Nagase, for many a safe bet. Toma built up his way to this match with stunning victories over Sven Maresch (GER) and home favourite and seed number 5 Victor Penalber. Against Nagase Toma had no mercy and won his pool and will now fight Khasan Khalmurzaev. Toma, originally from Moldova, has never fought Khalmurzaev before. Khalmurzaev is part of a twin, brother Khusen missed just out the qualification against Denisov (RUS). Khalmurzaev defeated 2012 bronze medallist Antoine Valois-Fortier who is now the repechage against Takanori Nagase.

Georgian Avtandili Tchrikishvili will face Travis Stevens, USA’s experienced fighter who lost his bronze bout against Valois in 2012 and is seeking for revenge in Rio where he won the PanAm Games title in 2007 and won a few Grand Slam medals. However at both World Championships in Rio in 2007 and 2013 he lost in the prerounds, never he was as good at a major tournament as now, and he knows. Tchrikishvili defeated five out of the six encounters.

Italian Matteo Marconcini had a great day with victories over Nakano, Bottieau and Duminica ut lost to Tchrikishvili. He will be in the repechage match against Bulgarian strong man Ivaylo Ivanov. He defeated Dutchman Frank de Wit and World number five in Astana Lee Seung-Su (KOR) but lost to  Stevens.

Don’t miss the final block and watch all statistics.