Unique Dutch heavyweight final won by Jelle Snippe

For the first time ever in the IJF World Tour the Netherlands had two finalist in the heayvyweight category. Two Dutch athletes qualified after struggling tooth and nail during the preliminaries. Jelle Snippe was the one who this time grabbed gold in Antalya after being in the Paris final this year against Teddy Riner. This edition Roy Meyer was his opponent. Unique final, something that neither Henk Grol vs Roy Meyer, or Jur Spijkers didn’t even realise together.

Jelle Snippe and Roy Meyer are fighters who don't give up and today they left absolutely nothing behind and they gave even more than anyone could have thought was possible. Most of all they gave energy, unfailing commitment and a determination to win as well.

If Roy Meyer was one of the top seeds, although he was not among the first favourites, Snippe came through the first rounds when he was really an outsider. The public expected a lot from their heavyweights, two of them falling victim to Meyer and his explosive judo.

It was in golden score that the final was decided as Snippe found the right combination of uchi-mata-o-uchi-gari to score a waza-ari and win a second gold for team Netherlands today.

Woohyeok Song (KOR) and Levani Matiashvili (GEO) met in the first match for a bronze medal and the medal went to Song after Matiashvili was penalised a third time. This is the first medal for Song at this level.

Ibrahim Tataroglu (TUR) was the last medal hope for the host country. He was opposed to Yevheniy Balyevski (UKR) for the final bronze medal. It must be noted that Ibrahim Tataroglu is only 17 years old. In front of his public, he scored a massive heavyweight style tani-otoshi before holding his opponent for ippon. Being 17 and already a grand slam winner is not common and we will have to remember that name, Ibrahim Tataroglu. His dad was also a great judoka, Selim Tataroglu, having been twice a world silver medallist. Now it's his son's turn to make a name in judo.