Bilal Ciloglu and Vedat Albayrak give Turkey a boost

Turkey had an incredible great day with two gold medals at the Grand Prix in Agadir. Youngster Bilal Ciloglu knows he is capable of closing in to senior level. The runner-up of the World Junior Championships however jumped to the top of international judo with an outstanding first place in Agadir beating Musa Mogushkov of Russia.

Bilal Ciloglu (TUR) who, a few minutes earlier had foiled all the prognoses by getting rid of the other strongman Russian of the day, Musa Mogushkov, by sending him to the tatami on the final gong. The bronze U73kg was for Bekadil Shaimerdenov of Kazakhstan and Anthony Zingg of Germany.

Not just Cilal Biloglu was outstanding. Vedat Albayrak, formerly knows as Roman Moustopoulos is totally loose this year with unexpected performances. It must be said that the Russian delegation was eagerly awaited since they had aligned competitors of first level such as the Olympic champion U81kg title, Khasan Khalmurzaev (RUS) who was precisely eliminated prematurely by Vedat Albayrak (TUR), who took the gold agt the end of the day. Khalmurzaev appeared below his Rio 2016 level, which allowed him to put his name on the Olympic pantheon. Nevertheless, and it is probably in these moments that we recognise the great champions, while he was in great difficulty against the German Dominic Ressel (GER), in the final for the bronze medal, he found the resources to win with a superb technical movement. Anri Egutidze captured the bronze medal for Portugal in this weight class and stood next to Khalmurzaev on the podium.

After his exploit against the Olympic Champion, Vedat Albayrak won masterfully against the Belgian Matthias Casse in the final. Also for Casse it was an opportunity to fight in an IJF World Tour final for the first time, this time awarded with silver, but for sure in the future with a gold medal somewhere. Albayrak, imitated his compatriot Ciloglu. This Turkish double is interesting for a country that will soon be hosting a World Tour Grand Prix. It will be in Antalya from April 6 to 8, 2018.

After the thirteen medal-winning countries of the first day, four new nations added their names to the tournament's list.