Pan America shows its best in Antalya and Lima

The Grand Slam in Antalya and Pan American Oceania Championships showed us some amazing judo again. Judo fans needed it and definitely some of the athletes also really needed a success. It was the last big event as a preparation on the continental championships taking place traditionally in April. If the circumstances allow athletes can celebrate to have a continental championship again and hopefully in full strength to meet with their peers on the continent.

Continental Champions are always spectacular, not as big as most IJF World Tour events, but at least a fixed event on the agenda of most athletes. Obviously in an Olympic year some of the top athletes skipped that event but in a post Olympic year, the continental championships lead to hot speculations. Also online where online sportsbook promotions run ahead with speculation as to who will enter the championships and who will have the best chance of taking the medals. Yet it remains difficult for judo connoisseurs to predict a good result. Judo remains a game where anything can happen in a split second. Always stay sharp is the advice, because with the smallest wrong move or inattention you are behind.

Still, it's interesting to see what's going to happen in April at those continental championships. Also in Antalya some continents seem to be warming up with startling results.

Klimkait beats the competion

On the Turkish coast, a European event, but a bridge between Europe and Asia, actually the Pan American athletes showed themselves in a good way. In fact from North, middle and south America three athletes claimed a gold medal this weekend. Jessica Klimkait didn’t surprise with a gold medal, but that’s easier said than done as she really was fighting a strong group of athletes U57kg which included World Champions like Christa Deguchi, Rafaela Silva and many continental champions such as Monteiro and Gneto.

On the second day in Antalya it was Guilherme Schimidt of Brazil who upset the odds with a stunning results capturing gold in the weight class U81kg with top athletes on the roster such as Matthias Casse, Saeid Mollaei, Dominic Ressel, home fighter Vedat Albayrak who was his opponent in the final and Uzbek Sharofiddin Boltaboev who is looking forward to the World Championships in October in his own country. It was Schiidt who prevailed and even beat the top two athletes in Albayrak and Casse and let’s not forget illustrious judoka as Etienne Briand and Nugzari Tatalashvili. When you wanted gold it was a hard struggle for some as it could even lead up to seven contests this weekend before it came to a medal match. With 525 athletes and 60 athletes in the U81k class, it was pushing to the limit and that’s what we want to see. It makes it exciting to bet who’s the best and the international judo federation is organizing it’s own medal predictions game, maybe even defensive to prevent people from betting via the existing bookies online, but betting in a nice way… for the hour, fitting to the values of judo.

Jackpot for Ivan Silva

On the third day Pan America again his the golden jackpot when Ivan Felipe Silva Morales seems to be back in the scene U90kg with that splendid shiny gold he celebrated to be back and he repeated a golden performance in Lima at the Panam Championships. Ivan Silva Morales won the battle against Luka Maisuradze and also South American compatriot Rafael Macedo showcased how strong Pan America is developing in a bronze final against Louis Krieber Gagnon who booked his career best in the IJF World Tour with a fifth place. Former World Champion Silva Morales was immediately back as favourite for the continental title in Peru where Silva picked up another gold medal.

Pan American-Oceania Championships combined

What made it special is that the Pan American Championships were combined with Oceania. For instance U90kg man Harrison Cassar of Australia was competing in Peru where in the recent past the Oceania Championships were combined with those in Asia. Oceania needs some trailblazing athletes as Katharina Haecker cannot do it on her own. The continentals championships are combined since a few years. The competition is much tougher now for the Aussies and kiwis and let’s hope they can get out some results in in the future as well with minimum one gold medal at each event.

It seems like Pan-American nations have been doing their homework and that the combined Pan-American and Oceania Championships delivered a very strong and spectacular outcome in some weight categories even despite the absence of Klimkait and Deguchi.

In Antalya the gold medals were divided to Europe with nine titles, two for Asia, for Taipei’s Yang and Mongolia’s Ganbaatar. Even without the Japanese who were competing at the All Japan Championships in Fukuoka. Pan America was greedy with three gold medals and eight medals in total, that is an amount to be hopeful on future success. Follow more continental Championships in April.