Marcus Nyman found pleasure and the way to the medals

Marcus Nyman quite judo twice, but twice he found the way to the sportshall and has enough talent to make it to the top of the world. He proved it at the Worlds in Tokyo where he was close to the medals, but in Tashkent no one could stop the experienced Swede on his way to gold.

Half of the match had not yet come that the two finalists, Marcus Nyman (and Khusen Khalmurzaev (RUS) were already penalized each of two shido for passivity. Producing a huge effort to take control of the kumikata, neither Nyman nor Khalmurzaev could really attack and burned the last calories they had left by entering a tense golden score. At this little game, it was Nyman who finally found the opening on a turnaround, and immobilized the Russian to win the gold, his 11th medal on the World Judo Tour.

The first match for the bronze medal was between defending Olympic Champion Baker Mashu (JPN) and young Lasha Bekauri (GEO). Away from the World Judo Tour for several months due to a shoulder injury, the Japanese returned to the competition on the occasion of this Grand Prix. Looking to come back to his best level, Baker certainly did not come to Tashkent to the best of his abilities and he suffered throughout the day, being eliminated in the quarter-finals by the very fit Marcus Nyman (SWE) and being mistreated from the outset of the bronze medal contest against the fiery Georgian.

The latter quickly marked a magnificent waza-ari. Taller than Baker and taking advantage of his reach, Bekauri seemed to dominate his opponent, when he was controlled on the ground with an immobilization that almost came to an end. Hope returned to the Japanese camp. But Bekauri managed to extricate himself in extremis from a difficult situation: a waza-ari on both sides. It was finally on the last action, at the very last second that the Olympic Champion managed to conclude on one last immobilization. His was to the podium was long and difficult, but it is a beautiful medal for Baker after his absence from the circuit.

The second bronze medal contest between Peter ZILKA (SVK) and Erlan Sherov (KGZ) seemed to be quite balanced between the two competitor, when SHEROV launched an attack which was lacking control. At that level of competition, a little mistake can have immediate consequences, and that is what happened as Zilka immediately counterattacked with a massive ura-nage for a cristal clear ippon.