Darwish savours happy hunting ground with gold for Egypt

Former world bronze medallist Ramadan Darwish of Egypt won the Tashkent Grand Prix for a second time as the top seed was the top performer in the U100kg category. Darwish took the contest to Ekaterinburg Grand Slam silver medallist Niyaz Ilyasov (RUS) and scored a waza-ari from a buzzer-beating uchi-mata with just a second left on the clock.

Darwish moved onto 11 Grand Prix medals which includes four gold and two from Uzbekistan while 22-year-old Ilyasov earned his best finish at Grand Prix.

In the first semi-final Darwish bested former Asian Championships bronze medallist Saidzhalol Saidov (TJK) by a waza-ari score to take his place in the -100kg final and guarantee a medal for Egypt as his country’s lone representative in Tashkent. In the second semi-final Ilyasov downed former Junior European Championships bronze medallist Mikita Sviryd of Belarus by a waza-ari from an uchi-mata.

The first bronze medal was won by 2016 Tashkent Grand Prix silver medallist Davronbek Sattorov (UZB) who threw Sviryd for ippon with 49 seconds left on the clock to boost his country’s medal haul on the last day in Uzbekistan. Sattorov slapped his chest and screamed in celebration to a raucous response from the crowd.                                                  

The second bronze medal went to Asian Championships bronze medallist Sherali Juraev (UZB) who conquered Saidov. Even the smallest of movements from the Uzbek was met with roars of approval from the home fans but it was mistakes from Saidov which settled the contest as a third shido – for breaking the grip off illegally - against the Tajikistan judoka meant hansoku-make and bronze for Uzbekistan.

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