Tal Flicker takes gold for Israel with Baku looming

European bronze medallist and World number three Tal Flicker of Israel won his first IJF medal of the year to set out his intentions of again being on the World Championships podium this autumn. The reigning world bronze medallist defeated Ukraine’s first and only ever world champion Georgii Zantaraia (UKR) by a waza-ari score to celebrate winning the second Grand Prix title of his thriving career.

In the first semi-final three-time Grand Slam bronze medallist Dovdon Altansukh (MGL) lost out to Zantaraia in golden score when he received his third penalty. In the second semi-final Flicker conquered European champion Adrian Gomboc (SLO) by ippon with a minute left on the clock.

The first bronze medal was won by one-time Grand Prix winner Abe who recovered from his shock defeat in the preliminaries – at the hands of Dovdon - to take his anticipated place on the podium even though it was at the lower level than usual. Abe graced a bronze medal contest for the first time on the IJF World Judo Tour and won by ippon against the Slovenian after an onslaught of attacks.

The second bronze medal went to Düsseldorf Grand Slam bronze medallist Baruch Shmailov (ISR) who threw Dovdon for ippon with a textbook uchi-mata. Dovdon failed to win a 10th Grand Prix medal as he was caught cold by the Israeli who could now relax and watch his teammate Flicker in the final.