Egypt remains historically strong U100kg, gold for Ramadan Darwish

Tashkent's final of the men’s U100kg opposed the winner of the first edition of the Havana Grand Prix this year, Toma Nikiforov of Belgium and the bronze medallist of last week at the Astana Grand Prix, Ramadan Darwish (EGY). None of the two athletes were really able to show something interesting until the very last seconds of the fight when Ramadan Darwish scored a yuko, giving him the first place.

It's a natural category for Egypt U100kg with Bassel El Gharbawy in the past, Islam El Shehaby temporarily and Ramadan Darwish nowadays.

The first bronze medal fight opposed the winner of the Zagreb Grand Prix last September, Adlan Bisultanov (RUS), and the world number seven and Tyuman Grand Slam Bronze medallist, Martin Pacek (SWE). The strongest action came after three minutes of tactical fighting when the tall Pacek launched a sutemi-waza but for no score and just 17 seconds before the end of the match, after a major mistake from Bisultanov, Pacek could apply a o-soto-gari technic for ippon.

When the two athletes, Ramziddin Sayidov (UZB) and Jorge Fonseca (POR), entered the stadium for the second bronze medal fight, the public which was a little asleep, suddenly woke up and both fighters gave really good reasons to cheer as they were totally engaged in an incredible combat. But in this incredible ‘battle’, Fonseca was several times penalized for false attacks and Sayidov could control the score until the last seconds, despite some very strong and powerful attacks from the Portuguese. Both athletes literally felt into one another arms at the end of the bout.