Preview World Championships U90kg

One of the most attractive events at the World Championships in Astana will be the men’s U90kg. A category with huge promoters in judo, the popular guys in town. Icons that attract fans to the venue in Astana. First of Toth Krisztian of Hungary. The grew this year to the number one position in the world, while he is just a senior judoka. The 21-year old Hungarian is in the same pool with European Champion Kirill Denisov, Tiago Camilo and Guillaume Elmont, together good for 6 World Championships medals, Elmont and Camilo are World Champions from the past, both U81kg. Although the last three are in the other block, there’s only one place in the semi final.

What about the second pool with Beka Gviniashvili as favourite, but also strong Japanese talent Mashu Baker, the new kid on the block and in between smart and successful Egyptian judoka Hatem Abdelakher and many other outsiders who can bring the hotshots down: Nhabali, Kukolj, Piontek, Dvarby and Sherazadashvili to name a handful of quality.

Noel van ‘t End is the leader of Group C, whether he will be the leader after the quarter finals is the questions as he is coming back from a knee injury and is not fit enough to shine at his usual level and he can use all tricks against Italian Facente. In the other block Ilias Iliadis who lost to Van ‘t End with a huge ippon recently but also Nyman, 2013 World Champ Asley Gonzalez, Budapest winner Celio Dias, so enough banana skins.

Varlam Liparteliani is the icing on the cake in pool D. He won medals in 2013 and 2014 and is close to Alexandre Iddir. Gwak Dong-Han of Korea is certainly an outsider for the world title. The Korean seems to have a good draw but Liparteliani is the likely opponent in the quarter final. Lipearteliani defeated him once, but Gwak is a nasty guy for many and the Korean flow in the team is good.

Enjoy the category U90kg with the nice guys of judo…. But not on the tatami.

Watch all statistics for each individual match here