Tsetsentsengel Odkhuu claims second Grand Slam gold for Mongolia

Quietly, slowly but surely, Mongolia is building a team that in the coming years may be fearsome. It is one of the countries that is fortunate to have both men and women and is presenting its new pearls in society. We already know Tsogtbaatar Tsend-Ochir, whose career at U73kg is becoming meteoric, with two world medals and one Olympic medal, in addition to his brand-new lead in the category. Now Mongolia also has a heavyweight, Tsetsentsengel Odkhuu. He is the latest product of a delegation that has managed to combine youth and seniority with wisdom. It is a country that also has Saeid Mollaei.

In his first final on the world judo tour Odkhuu measured his strength with the Romanian Vladut Simionescu. There was an obvious size difference and nine years between the two. Odkhuu couldn't move Simionescu, who wasn't doing much either. They seemed to go straight to golden score but within thirty seconds Odkhuu entered a new dimension with a ko-soto-gake that was heard even in Ulaanbaatar. Let everyone know, Mongolia now has a heavyweight.

Temur Rakhimov was the third Tajik of the day wanting to touch a medal. Valeriy Endovitskiy was the fourth for Russia. At first they bored everyone with two shidos each in two minutes of combat. It was like getting whipped and they both started practising judo. Rakhimov won in golden score by ippon with uchi-mata and crystallised an historic day for Tajikistan.

Marc Deschenes increased Canada's locker with the bronze for a non-appearance by the Ukrainian Yevheniy Balyevskyy.

Russia finished first in the medal table with two golds, the same as Great Britain. France, Germany and Mongolia followed. Here we say goodbye to the World Judo Tour until next year and we already miss it. It has been our refuge and our pride in this difficult year.