All eyes on Maruyama during preliminaries

With 59 athletes at U66kg entered on the three tatami of the Laszlo Papp Arena at the World Championships in Hungary. Accommodating some spectators gives even more colour to an already very colorful event. During the day. In the first round, top seed Manuel Lombardo defeated Sebastian Seidl (GER), before he fought and won against Orlando Polanco (CUB), Yakub Shamilov (RJF) and then Yeldos Zhumakanov (KAZ) in the semi-final.

On the second half of the draw, all eyes were on Maruyama Joshiro (JPN), probably one of the most spectacular and stylish judoka on the circuit, despite his non-selection for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. During the first round, Maruyama once again showed that he's one of those competitors who really 'feels' rather than 'thinks' when it's the right moment to attack. In this way, the Japanese 2019 world champion is one of the most impressive athletes on the World Judo Tour. Today was maybe not his best day in terms of preparation. If his attacks were perfectly launched, he was lacking a bit of finish and polish, which pushed him into golden score several times. This is the signature of great champions though, that when the day is tough, they still have the resources to do the job, which Maruyama did for the second World Championships in a row.