Alpha Oumar Djalo climbs the IJF World Ranking with precious gold

Today’s final U81kg in Zagreb between Saeid Mollaei (AZE) and Frenchman Alpha Oumar Djalo was a game of kumi-kata, with a head start for the Frenchman who managed to draw out two penalties against Mollaei. The Azeri was not comfortable and the French strictly followed the strategy established before the fight. With 40 seconds remaining, both propelled themselves and fell, but the referee judged the waza-ari was for Djalo. It is a huge victory for the Frenchman, the first of his career on the World Judo Tour. As for Mollaei, he is doing very well, very close to gold, more and more, but he continues to stumble at the last stone. It's a matter of time because the man comes around.

The Azerbaijani Saeid Mollaei wanted to settle accounts with the Brazilian Guilherme Schimidt, his executioner in the Budapest final. The fight took place on the penultimate rung, the semi-final, and was favourable for Mollaei, who won by waza-ari a few seconds from the end, resetting the counter to zero and getting into his second consecutive final since his return to the World Judo Tour. The former world champion looks happy, focused, eager to do judo and to please his new teammates. When the man comes around we know something big will happen.

Grigalashvili against Schimidt could very well have been a final. They battled it out for bronze, with the Georgian disappointed  despite his talent being immense; the Brazilian buoyed by his Budapest-winning momentum. For Brazil it was the opportunity to add a third bronze on the same day, for Georgia it was a matter of honour, because that is how their judoka take judo. Grigalashvili offered his traditional repertoire of genius, attacking from both sides, making sweeps, varying the offences, but always forward, which is his style. Guilherme had his head under water, but in the meantime golden score arrived and each had two penalties to their credit. Grigalashvili doesn't like long fights and gets angry as time goes on. As he has more talent than Schimidt, at least for the moment, the Brazilian's best chance was that his rival may lose patience. Grigalashvili was tired, but Guilherme was too and he didn't attack, as the Georgian did. Tato won due to the accumulation of penalties, but Guilherme will surely analyse the fight because he lost an excellent opportunity to beat one of the greats of the category.

The African champion, the Moroccan Achraf Moutii faced the Portuguese Fernando for the last bronze of the day and the first in a grand prix for either of the two. Fernando is fast and tried to surprise Moutii, who had to defend himself by not taking the initiative. As the match progressed, intensity faded, the inevitable shido and nerves appeared. Fernando's were made of steel, and he scored ippon in golden score. The bronze was not only his first medal at this level, but also the first for Portugal in this grand prix.

The first to fall was the main favourite, Tato Grigalashvili. The Georgian pushed like a ball against the burly Frenchman Alpha Oumar Djalo and said goodbye to the fight for gold. The second was the Dutchman Frank de Wit, whose executioner was the Azeri Zelim Tskaev. This was beginning to seriously resemble the previous category. There was no order, the hierarchy was conspicuous by its absence.

The Portuguese Joao Fernando took advantage of the confusion, eliminated Tskaev and slipped into the semi-finals, where he lost to Djalo, the gold medallist of today.