Big boy Denis Vieru celebrates gold in Abu Dhabi

Number two seed of the tournament Moldovan Denis Vieru was definitely a favourite for the podium in Abu Dhabi’s Grand Slam. The category U66kg showed a strong field for this stage of the year in a post Olympic period.

Only 22 years old, Ismail Misirov (RUS) was not among the seeds of the second men's category of this first day of competition in Abu Dhabi. However, the bronze medallist of the 2021 European U23 Championships did not tremble and reached the final to find himself facing a serious client in Vieru.

Vieru, from whom specialists always appreciate clean technique, seemed tired at the end of the day and a long season and was not able to show his usual pace and style. With both athletes being penalised twice during normal time they entered the golden score period to determine the winner. That is where something unusual happened, as Misirov was penalised a third time for not tidying his judogi.

All athletes know about that rule, in place for quite a while; between mate and hajime they must arrange their judogi to guarantee that their opponent can develop their judo. Today Misirov forgot about it and was penalised for the third time. For sure, from now on, he will never make the same mistake again. This benefits Vieru, who adds one more line to his prize list. He also won the Grand Prix in Zagreb in September.

In the first bronze medal match Walide Khyar, who was no doubt expecting a little better in Abu Dhabi, managed to qualify to compete against Mongolian Baskhuu Yondonperenlei, seventh at the Olympic Games this summer in Tokyo. If both athletes showed really strong grips, neither was able to transform that into real attacks and the match went to golden score with one shido to Yondonperenlei and two to Khyar. With 26 seconds passed, the Mongolian competitor went straight through his opponent, who missed his o-uchi-gari attempt, to score ippon with a ko-soto-gake.

Another Moldovan also entered the final block, as Radu Izvoreanu qualified against the Ukrainian Bogdan Iadov for a place on the podium and a first match between the two men. Iadov swiftly won the medal, taking less than two minutes to earn a first waza-ari with a kata-guruma, followed by an immobilisation for ippon.