Cold shower for Tato Grigalashvili after home loss against Lee

Tato Grigalashvili is the embodiment of talent, pure dynamite. Nobody gets bored with him because something always happens. He never defends, his attitude is totally conditioned by the offensive spirit. He attacks from any side and doesn’t recoil from ne-waza. He is a prodigy.

Grigalashvili only has one weak point but a lot of time to correct it, because he is only 22 years old; he must not ignore it, his problem is mental. He has a tendency to overreact and look excessively at the head referees' table; a minor detail but it counts. Otherwise his judo is entertaining and effective. At home he did not shine as usual, several of his opponents refused to fight and lost by shido, but he reached the final in which he was the clear favourite against the Korean Lee Joon-Hwan. It would not be easy for Grigalashvili because the Korean had eliminated rivals such as the Uzbek Sharofiddin Boltaboev and was inspired.

Everything was ready for the Georgian party to be complete, but the Korean did not see it that way. Grigalashvili felt stronger and attacked, making the mistake of opening the door for Lee, the kind of mistake that is unforgiving at this level. It’s an ice-cold shower for Grigalashvili, cold for the public too, but hot for the Korean. It’s torrid for judo because it was a nice fight with a fair winner, the best in the land of the braves.

Thirty-seven seconds were taken by the Azeri Eljan Hajiyev, to get rid of Tiziano Falcone. It was as if he was afraid of missing the plane on the way back to Baku. In any case, he had to wait because another bronze was at stake for Azerbaijan at the hands of Zelim Tskaev, who faced Boltaboev. The Azeris did not lose the plane but they only checked in one medal, the other was taken by Boltaboev.