Varlam Liparteliani wins new honour with masters title

World silver medallist Varlam Liparteliani of Georgia won a new honour as the captain of the Georgian team helped to inspire his country to a stunning last day performance at the IJF World Masters in St. Petersburg. Another great performance for Georgia that won three gold medals this weekend.

Olympic and Worlds runner-up Liparteliani was throwing at will at times earlier in the day and beat Dutch world number one Michael Korrel in the final with the fervent Georgian support, including countless flags draped over the stands, reaching new levels. A first Masters title for the IJF World Judo Tour star was the result after Korrel was thrown with a makikomi for a waza-ari and could not find a way to register a score of his own.

In the first semi-final Korrel defeated European champion Elkhan Mammadov (AZE) when the veteran Azeri received his third shido in golden score. In the second semi-final Tokyo Grand Slam bronze medallist Cirjenics Miklos (HUN) was well-beaten by world silver medallist Varlam Liparteliani (GEO) who produced three waza-ari scores without reply.

The first bronze medal was won by Cirjenics who took both sleeves of Portuguese powerhouse Jorge Fonseca (POR) before launching his adversary for ippon with one of the throws of the tournament. Zagreb Grand Prix silver medallist Fonseca is seldom caught in such a manner and had to settle for fifth-place.

The second bronze medal went to Mammadov, who will turn 36 in February, as he threw home judoka Denisov with a ko-soto for a waza-ari which was the decisive moment of the four minute contest.

It was Michael Korrel who took the 50k bonus as World Number one, followed by Varlam Liparteliani.

Read all the news about the IJF World Masters in St. Petersburg.