Jorre Verstraeten starts qualification with clean sheet

In the category U60kg of the Grand Slam in Budapest at least, the two favourites met in the final. Belgian Jorre Verstraeten made his debut as first seed. The Belgian is not ungrateful and flew to the final, non-stop, based on ippon. It is seen that when he has an opportunity he takes it. Jorre Verstraeten won his third IJF World Tour gold in Hungary, displaying a dazzling array of techniques along the way.

Opposite, not to waver from the rankings, a Georgian and former world champion. It is very unusual not to find a Georgian in any final. In this category, the chosen one was Lukhumi Chkhvimiani, who is in the downward phase of his career, with more honours than medals, but who is still capable of upsetting the youngsters and getting into a final, a contest between the world number nine, the Belgian, and the tenth, the veteran warrior.

Verstraeten started off with what looked like it would be a Japanese-style turnover turned into a choke on David Terao (USA). Then he did two drop ippon-seoi-nages on Magzhan Shamsadin (KAZ).

Verstraeten showed what good footwork he had by throwing Romain Valadier Picard (FRA) with a perfectly-timed de-ashi-barai.

For his semifinal, he turned Ariunbold Enkhtaivan (MGL) with the Japanese turnover he threatened to do in his first match.

Lastly, in the final he defeated the awkward and unorthodox Lukhumi Chkhvimiani (GEO) with a classical kosoto-gari in Golden Score.

Romain Valadier Picard is a French junior with great style and top reviews from experts. The future could be his! In Budapest he fought for bronze against the Kazakh Bauyrzhan Narbayev and won his second grand slam medal via a fantastic morote-seoi-nage.

Temur Nozadze wanted to second his compatriot Chkhvimiani and add another medal for Georgia. For this he had to overcome the Mongolian Ariunbold Enkhtaivan. A first waza-ari, ko-uchi-gari combined with tsuri-goshi and turned into soto-makikomi, brand of the house for Nozadze and everything to do for the Mongolian. He was close but made a mistake and Nozadze finished him off with o-uchi-gari. These Georgians are insatiable when it comes to medals.