Tsogtbaatar Tsend-Ochir defeats World Champ An Chang-Rim

Mongolia was one of the surprising countries at last weekend’s Asian Pacific champions held in Fujeirah in the UAE. Tsogtbaatar Tsend-Ochir was the big man with gold U73kg. The finalist of the Grand Slam in Paris is knocking on the door of the world’s best athletes for quite some time. His Asian title in the heart where the main competition is, was a surprise win over World Champion An Chang-Rim.

The category U73kg was heavily occupied with some world class players. With Tsend-Ochir and An in the final, no further words are needed about the quality of the field. For Tsend-Ochir it was a revenge for his lost quarter final against An at the World Championships last year in Baku. An also defeated the prodigy of Mongolian judo at the IJF Masters in Guanzhou in last year’s first round. Also in the category U66kg both know each-other from the World Championships. Tsend-Ochir is now 23 and already competed at the Olympic Games in Rio. His star is rising each event and a victory over An is just another milestone but great motivation ending the day with gold in Fujeirah. In the semi-final Tsend-Ochir bested Iranian Mohammad Mohammadi who took bronze at the last World Championships in Baku.

Otgonbaatar Lkhagvasuren
It wasn’t the only gold medal for Mongolia. Also Otgonbaatar Lkhagvasuren defeated a Korean opponent in the final. Lkhagvasuren bested Jong-Hoon Won U100kg. The category didn’t have the best quality without Japanese input. Kayhan Takagi took bronze for Australia.

Also the gold U81kg for Uuganbaatar Otgonbaatar was strong in a weekend where all potential success was written on the account of the strong Asian nation. Otgonbaatar defeated Uzbek Sharofiddin Boltaboev in the final.

Sosorbaram Lkhagvasuren

Three years ago in Tashkent Mongolian had already captured four gold medals, the best ever performance at Asian Championships. The team didn’t even send its best team as Munkhbat and Dorjsuren were absent. Sosorbaram Lkhagvasuren took a silver medal U52kg. She is just 18 and was already in the final of the Grand Slam in Düsseldorf this year. In the UAE this weekend she lost the final to Diyora Keldiyorova (UZB).