An Ba-Ul dominates men’s U66kg

An Ba-Ul was the big man at the first day of the Grand Prix in Tel Aviv, the opening of the IJF World Tour. Korean An qualified for the final against Yerlan Serikzhanov (KAZ). An needed less than thirty seconds to score a first Waza-ari to take a serious advantage on the final victory, which he confirmed a few moments later with a second Waza-ari on a left shoulder movement.

If the audience was quietly watching the final block so far, the whole public suddenly woke up and made their voice heard as Tal Flicker (ISR) climbed on the tatami to offer perhaps a first medal to the host country. But for that he had to face Yeldos Humakanov (KAZ) and the least we can say is that the match was close and stressful for the athletes, the referees and the public. It was not until the golden score, on a powerful attack on the left, that Flicker was able to score a Waza-ari which suddenly released a whole people.

Having barely recovered from their emotions, the public continued with the entry of Baruch Shmailov (ISR) opposed to the Brazilian Daniel Cargnin. Once again the match was dense between the left-hander Shmailov, penalized twice during regular time, and the right-hander Cargnin. However, supported by the audience, Shmailov found the necessary resources to make his opponent penalized twice and returned to full equality. But after more than two minutes of golden score, the Israeli was again penalized for having held his opponent's belt too long without attacking. First bronze medal for Brazil here in Tel Aviv.