Russian Kazbek Zankishiev becomes a stable medal hunter

Russia added a second gold in the men's division as Kazbek Zankishiev took the gold at the Grand Prix in Tbilisi in his category U100kg with a strange end of the final.

With his rough and stable judo, Swedish top fighter Martin Pacek is always a difficult client for all athletes, who know that if they can not quickly score, the rest of the bout will be difficult. Once again, the Swedish confirmed his reputation and entered the final after a difficult semi-final against Jevgenijs Borodavko of Latvia, who lost by a single shido in the golden score. In the final Pacek was opposed to another young Russian, Kazbek Zankishiev who eliminated the more experienced Rafael Buzacarini (BRA) in the second half of the draw.

Pacek was penalised the first for an unprepared attack, almost immediately followed by a shido for Zankishiev for blocking his opponent. With less than one minute on the clock, Pacek executed a nice tai-otoshi but for no score. Unfortunately he then again applied a too much unprepared sutemi-waza and got penalised again… and again. Three shidos being equivalent to a hansokumake, Pacek was disqualified and Kazbek Zankishiev could win the second gold medal of the day for Russia.

In the first bronze medal contest, Zelym Kotsoiev (AZE), only 18 years old and cadets world silver medallist in 2015, faced Rafael Buzacarini (BRA), who has already six Grand Prix medals at home. After one minute and a half, Kotsoiev received a first shido for passivity. The two athletes entered into the last minute with no score. That is the moment, Buzacarini chose to apply a drop-morote-seoi-nage for waza-ari to take the lead and to keep it until the end for a seventh Grand Prix medal for the Brazilian.

The second bronze medal contest opposed two ‘veterans’ as Soyib Kurbonov (UZB), 29, and Jevgenijs Borodavko (LAT), 30 met for a place on the podium. After four minutes, the match continued in golden score as none of the two athletes was capable of scoring during the regular time. Borodavko took his chance to step on the podium with a low-o-uchi-gari for waza-ari.