Otgonbaatar Lkhagvasuren takes home gold

Tbilisi Grand Prix bronze medallist Lkhagvasuren Otgonbaatar (MGL) has already established himself as his country’s leading man in the category and on today’s showing has the tools to become a top force on the World Judo Tour. Former Qingdao Grand Prix winner Cheng Xunzhao (CHN) lost out to the 22-year-old Mongolian who was coached to victory by Beijing Olympic champion NAIDAN Tuvshibayar. Lkhagvasuren thrilled the home fans by winning by ippon with 48 seconds left and lapped up the home ovation.

Lkhagvasuren said: “I’m very happy to win my first gold medal but especially here in my country. The crowd have been great for us, they provide a lot of moral support and encouragement. Having Naidan as my coach is an honour for me and I feel a big responsibility to perform well. He has been very supportive and I thank him for helping me. My next event is the Tyumen Grand Slam in two weeks.”

In the first semi-final Baku Grand Slam bronze medallist and top seed Joakim Dvarby (SWE) lost out to Lkhagvasuren. Dvarby who beat international and club colleague Nyman with a kosoto-gake for ippon in the previous round, was stunned with one second left as the home judoka scored a waza-ari despite the Mongolian coach being sent to the stands for coaching during the contest. In the second semi-final CHENG saw off Zagreb Grand Prix silver medallist Aaron Hildebrand (GER) by two waza-ari scores. The former opened his account with an osoto-gari and added a second and match-winning waza-ari with osaekomi-waza as the clock reached 15 seconds.

The first bronze medal was awarded to former Tashkent Grand Prix silver medallist Erkin DONIYOROV (UZB) who defeated HILDEBRAND by a waza-ari score while the second bronze medal was presented to DVARBY who bested 20-year-old unknown judoka Samat YESSEN (KAZ) by ippon with 27 seconds left on the clock.