Mongolia superior at first day GP Ulaanbaatar

Mongolia is leading the medal table after the first day of the Judo Grand Prix in Ulaanbaatar. The home country took three gold medals. Most surprising not by the world champion Ganbat Boldbaatar U60kg but Dashdavaa Amartusvhin. Kherlen Ganbold won bronze and they are all of world level. Ganbat is World Ranking leader U60kg, Dashdavaa 8th and Ganbold 14th.

U66kg Mongolia doesn’t have that luxury but Davaadorj Tumurkhuleg is of enough quality for the top three of the world. He won the event in Ulaanbaatar. He won the tournament for the third time, but first time with the status of Grand Prix. This year Tumurkhuleg also won in Tbilisi. In the final he defeated Hifumi Abe of Japan. Olympic Champion U60kg Arsen Galstyan lost to Andraz Jereb in the first round but came back in the repechage with two victories.

In the women’s U57kg category the victory was for Mongolian Sumiya Dorjsuren. She defeated Olympic Champion Kaori Matsumoto (JPN) and is now seriously knocking on the door to lead the category U57kg soon. She is third and highest seed in Mongolia and is now getting really close to the #1 position, still led by Portuguese Telma Monteiro followed by Caorioriu (ROU).

Matsumoto finished third after defeating her friend Sabrina Filzmoser (AUT). Silver was for Helene Receveaux who lost another final this year, her fourth and she is leading with most lost finals this year in the world together with Tatalashvili (GEO) and Cheikh Rouhou (TUN).

France did win gold though, by Laetitia Payet who won the category U48kg in the final against Yujeong Kang (KOR). Payet was the fourth French in the ranking U48 with Buchard, Gabrielli and Climence ahead of her, but will now jump a few places toward the top 20.

Ai Shishime of Japan won the gold U52kg in the final against Mongolian Adiyasambuu. The bronze medals were also captured by Mongolia.

The home nation was happy with the performances. Sumiya Dorjsuren responded: said: “I think for the Mongolian athletes there is a home advantage, we all felt very strong today and the crowd was amazing. I am very happy to be part of such a successful day for Mongolia with three gold medals on day one for us. My next competition will be the World Championships in Kazakhstan where I also hope to be on the medal podium.”