Adam Okruashvili ends Grand Prix with gold for Georgia

Dusseldorf Grand Prix bronze medallist Adam Okruashvili from Georgia produced a perfect ending to the first Tbilisi Grand Prix as he defeated Junior world champion Anton Krivobokov (RUS) in the heavyweight final. European silver medallist Okruashvili opened the scoring with a waza-ari at the halfway mark from a harai-makikomi and ensured victory by holding down Russia’s young contender with a mune-gatame as the crowd rose to their feet and applauded.

In the first semi-final Okruashvili defeated European u23 Championships bronze medallist Daniel Natea (ROU) as the young Romanian showed his inexperience by accumulating four shido penalties to fall into the repechage. In the second semi-final 20-year-old KRIVOBOKOV confidently dispatched Stanislav BONDARENKO (UKR) by a yuko and waza-ari to seal a place in his first Grand Prix final.

The first bronze medal went to BONDARENKO who won a lacklustre contest as Vakhtangi BITIEV (AZE) who finished seventh at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year received four shido penalties for passivity. The second bronze medal was won by Junior world bronze medallist Levani MATIASHVILI (GEO) as NATEA received four shido penalties for passivity. MATIASHVILI won his country’s first medal of the day and the first Grand Prix medal podium of his career.