Gela Zaalishvili take charge of men’s heavyweight judo

Georgian Gela Zaalishvili won the last contest in the individual competition as he bested Budapest Grand Prix silver medallist Stephan Hegyi (AUT) in the +100kg final. After Guram Tushishvili (GEO) won the senior world title in Baku, Azerbaijan, last month, Georgia showed that they have more highly-exciting heavyweight prospects in their ranks.

Hegyi, who is ranked 10th in the world on the senior ranking list, was thrown for a waza-ari and held down for 10 seconds as Junior European Championships gold medallist Zaalishvili recorded a stylish win to hand his country their second gold medal in Nassau.

In the first semi-final Berlin Junior European Cup silver medallist Dzhamal Gamzatkhanov (RUS) flew through the air from a sode-tsurikomi-goshi for ippon by Zaalishvili. In the second semi-final HEGYI bested Junior European Championships silver medallist Erik Abramov (GER) who was penalised for the third and final time in golden score to secure a place in the +100kg final for the second year in a row.

The first bronze medal was claimed by Abramov who dismissed Junior European Championships bronze medallist Enej Marinic (SLO) after just 42 seconds by ippon with a ko-soto-gake. 

The second bronze medal was captured by Gamzatkhanov who outfought 2015 Cadet World Championships gold medallist Kemal Kaitov (RUS). Gamzatkhanov is the son of the famed Magomedhan ‘Volk Han’ Gamzatkhanov who was a leading name in the Japanese professional wrestling scene in the 90s and the revered father was matside in the Bahamas. Gamzatkhanov won the all-Russian contest by rolling his teammate over for a waza-ari and Kaitov decided to tap out from the subsequent pin.