Romanian Daniel Natea regains his Grand Slam title in Abu Dhabi

Romanian World Judo Masters winner Daniel Natea has now won both of his Grand Slam gold medals in Abu Dhabi after a workman-like win over Tashkent Grand Prix bronze medallist Aliaksandr Vakhaviak (BLR) in the heavyweight men’s final. Natea was in devastating form in the preliminaries with a host of ippons worthy of the highlight reel treatment as he has become the leading heavyweight who is active on the tour post-Rio 2016.

A yuko from a ko-soto attack put the heaviest man in the category ahead after only 30 seconds and a waza-ari almost put the rampant Romanian out of sight. Vakhaviak, to his credit, did not concede again as he frustrated Natea in the closing minute as many spectators anticipated an ippon finish but the Belarus fighter held up the latter to take silver with dignity.

In the first semi-final Natea launched former Tyumen Grand Slam bronze medallist Soslan Bostanov (RUS) with an uchi-mata for a truly heavyweight ippon which was heard across the Emirates. In the second semi-final Tyumen Grand Slam bronze medallist Anton Brachev (RUS) was beaten by Aliaksandr Vakhaviak (BLR) with a picturesque sasae-tsurikomi-ashi for ippon.

The first bronze medal went to former Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix winner Michal Horak (CZE) who countered a ura-nage attempt from Brachev with a ko-uchi-gari for a waza-ari score. Horak helped himself to his first career Grand Slam honours to the delight of his Czech teammates and after absorbing this result will have to think about his next move as his teammate and -100kg Olympic champion Lukas Krpalek (CZE) is expected to make the leap up to the heavyweight division.

 The second bronze medal went to Baku Grand Slam bronze medallist David Moura (BRA) who held down Bostanov for 20 seconds and ippon. Moura, who was a spectator in Rio as he saw Rafael Silva (BRA) win his second Olympic bronze medal, turned over the Russian in ne-waza and was not going to be prised away from the upper body of his opponent.