Aslan Lappinagov mingles in Russian competition U81kg

The last final of the day opposed the Russian Aslan Lappinagov and the Greek Alexios Ntanatsidis, in a fight of strong men. For 4 minutes, the attacks were launched from one side to the other, without rest, the two athletes closing the first part of the contest, without scoring, but also without receiving the slightest penalty. It took Lappinagov 44 seconds to finally open the score and win the gold medal on a spectacular uchi-mata. We love matches of such intensity, even when they last longer than four minutes.

The first bronze medal contest opposed Eduardo Yudy Santos (BRA) and the 2019 Paris Grand Slam gold medallist Dominic Ressel (GER). The contest was quite short as in less than 40 seconds, Santos executed a perfect uchi-mata for ippon.

In the second bronze medal contest, the 2019 world bronze medallist Luka Maisuradze (GEO) was facing the 2018 World bronze medallist, Vedat Albayrak (TUR). The first strong action of the match was to put in the credit of Albayrak who believed he had scored a Waza-ari on o-uchi-gari, but the mark was withdrawn, as Maisuradze landed on the front of his body. For the first time in the final block, the gong resounded in the arena without either of the two athletes being able to decide who the winner was. It was not until 1:14 in the golden score, that Maisuradze was finally able to fully engage his right handed o-soto-gari to win a second medal at a grand prix.

World Champion Sagi Muki was slightly injured and consequently did not participate in the competition, but he was there to appreciate the show. Just before the start of the final block, Sagi Muki was honored alongside other renowned Israeli athletes and coaches by his federation, in front of an audience in heaven.