Jur Spijkers smells Olympic chances after golden start in Zagreb

The last final of the Grand prix in Zagreb and of the competition saw Jur Spijkers of The Netherlands and Vladut Simionescu (ROU) compete for gold. They were the top seeded competitors of the category and won all their matches by ippon. Spijkers will go for his chances. He beat Roy Meyer previously and Henk Grol retired in his division. Nonetheless an international gold medal is the first way to start the pace.

Always on the move, Jur Spijkers was harassing Simionescu with all kinds of little techniques that were meant to prepare stronger attacks, one of which eventually came: a massive o-uchi-gari that flattened Simionescu for ippon.

In the first bronze medal contest Yevheniy Balyevskyy (UKR) met Vito Dragic (SLO). After 2'51 of golden score and two penalties distributed on each side of the scoreboard, Yevheniy Balyevskyy finally scored ippon with an opportunist shime-waza technique.

Daniel Zorn (GER) and Martti Puumalainen (FIN) were the last athletes offered a chance to win a medal at the 2021 edition of the Zagreb Grand Prix. Puumalainen didn't let the chance get away from him. While he was continually attacking and taking risks, Zorn was penalised three times and thus disqualified, offering a great medal to the Finnish competitor.