Dota Arai in the foosteps of Ishii, Haga, Anai and Suzuki

The favourites in the category U100kg at the Junior Worlds in Odivelas were no match for the Japanese Dota Arai who qualified for the final after a first ippon from an aerial uchi-mata against Giorgi Baduashvili (GEO), then a waza-ari and an ippon, still with a left-handed uchi-mata against Bogdan Petre (ROU), two waza-ari against Joes Schell (NED), and finally ippon against Parviz Abdurakhmonov (TJK) in the semi-final.

The final between Shorakhmatov and Arai promised to be explosive and it began with powerful attacks coming from both athletes. Nobody had a clue in which direction it would go. Eventually it was Arai who chained o-uchi-gari attacks with a terrific ko-soto-gari that laid Shorakhmatov out, flat on his back. One more ippon for Arai and the gold medal was his, one more for Japan. The athletes showed great sportsmanship at the end of the final, celebrating the judo values.

The number one seed, Mathias Anglionin (FRA) did not expect such difficulty from the early contests. Opposed in the first round by Andzhei Pavliukov (AIN), he never seemed in a position to take the measure of his opponent. Although the latter was behind by two penalties, after three minutes he threw Anglionin with an o-soto-gari coupled with a change of direction towards uchi-mata for a first waz-ari, immediately combined with an immobilisation for ippon, which the Frenchman could not resist.

With the way clear, Pavliukov could dream of a final, but in the next round he stumbled in front of Rustam Shorakhmatov (UZB), who was not one of the favourites of the day. The Uzbek advanced to the final after his victory against the Italian Jean Carletti who until then had shown good things.

The first match for a bronze medal saw Andzhei Pavliukov (AIN) and Parviz Abdurakhmonov (TJK) face off. Spectacular all day long, Andzhei Pavliukov concluded his competition day with a massive counter-attack for ippon and the bronze medal.

Joes Schell (NED) and Jean Carletti (ITA) completed the final block of the category. Joes Schell was clearly the one who wanted the medal. After a first waza-ari score, he concluded with a massive classic o-uchi-gari for ippon.

Throw of the day, came in the -100 kg men’s category in the shape of Arai (JPN). In his semi-final against Abdurakhmonov, he used a phenomenally fast ko-soto to osoto combination which appeared effortless. It was a stylish use of techniques that are traditional, applied with such outstanding use of reaction and momentum. The hop with the support leg caused acceleration and the power involved made it impossible for the Tajik judoka to escape; he had immense control.