Noel van 't End feels good at Grand Prix Qingdao

In the men’s U90kg weight category, the top seeded athlete, Dutchman Noel Van ‘t End could enter the final, with the good hope to this time obtain the gold medal after already three silver medals this year on the World Judo Tour (Grand Slam Abu Dhabi 2014, Grand Slam Baku, Grand Prix Dusseldorf 2014).

His opponent was Alon Sasson (ISR), bronze medallist at the Rijeka Grand Prix in 2013. After 24 seconds, Sasson was penalized with a first shido for a false defense and after one minute and 40 seconds he was penalized again but for passivity. Clearly more confident than his opponent, Noel Van ‘t End scored first with a superb left-handed ippon-seoi-nage for waza-ari, before the Israeli received his third penalty. Nothing seemed to work for him and with one minute left on the scoreboard, he had to take risks but no, today, was the day of Noel Van ‘t End, who after his lost final in Abu Dhabi, this time can step on the top of the podium.

The first bronze medal fight opposed Gantulga Altanbagana (MGL), who so far only got a bronze medal in the continental circuit (Asian Open Taipei City 2014) and Ciril Grossklaus (SUI), who stepped on the podium in Abu Dhabi on the occasion of the first Judo Grand Slam in the United Arab Emirates. After a little bit less than 4 minutes, the first shido was given to Grossklaus for blocking his opponent, a shido that was enough to secure the victory of Gantulga.

The second bronze medal fight saw the two Swedish athletes, Marcus Nyman (SWE), who is back on the international circuit, his last medals coming from 2011, when he was first at the Judo Grand Prix in Düsseldorf and Joakim Dvarby (SWE), whose best results so far are two fifth places at the 2013 World and European Championships, competing for a place on the podium. The fight had the same layout as the first bronze medal fight as both athletes were not capable of scoring despite a waza-ari that was initially given to Nyman but cancelled by the jury and the video refereeing, and the victory went to Dvarby, Nyman having a shido against him.