Varlam Liparteliani for the third time at Paris podium

Georgian World bronze medallist Varlam Liparteliani stepped onto the Paris Grand Slam podium for the third year in a row as he defeated former Tashkent Grand Prix winner Alexandre Iddir. Frenchman Iddir had had never won a Grand Slam medal before today while Liparteliani took silver here a year ago and gold in 2013. Georgia’s first and only medal of the Paris Grand Slam turned out to be gold as Liparteliani countered a weak attack from his opponent to produce a yuko in golden score after the contest was scoreless after the initial five minutes.

In the first semi-final Liparteliani was in form as he dominated Aleksandar Kukolj (SRB) to eventually win by holding down his opponent for a second and match-winning waza-ari. In the second semi-final Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix winner Lkhagvasuren Otgonbaatar (MGL) was humbled by Iddir by an ippon-seoi-nage. 

The first bronze medal was won by Lkhagvasuren as Minsk European Open winner Axel Clerget (FRA) was denied a place on the U90kg medal podium. The Frenchman led with a yuko from a yoko-tomoe-nage but his Mongolian opponent restored parity and went on to win by way of shido penalties with two against the home fighter and only one against Lkhagvasuren. The second bronze medal was captured by Budapest Grand Prix winner Celio Dias (POR) who defeated Kukolj by ippon from a tomoe-nage having led by a waza-ari. The Portuguese judoka ran into the crowd to celebrate with his teammates including Saturday’s U57kg gold medallist Telma Monteiro. For the first time in the Paris history Portugal captured two medals in one event.