An gives Korea medal boost in Abu Dhabi

World bronze medallist An Changrim of Korea was in majestic form as he earned South Korea’s third gold medal of the competition. The 21-year-old hotshot, who only stepped up to the senior circuit a year ago, was unbeatable in Abu Dhabi as he showed his ippon judo to win four out of his five contests by the maximum score including the final against Paris Grand Slam bronze medallist Igor Wandtke of Germany. The German fighter was penalised with a shido for passivity before the South Korean launched forward into a ko-uchi-gari for ippon.

In the first semi-final Wandtke was successful against Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix winner Sai Yinjirigala (CHN). Both judoka exchanged shido penalties rather than scores as they were tied at the end of regular time with two shidos apiece and no scores registered. In golden score Sai was finally undone as Wandtke scored first with a yuko after 97 seconds. In the second semi-final An bested Sagi muki of Israel for a place in the gold medal contest. Both judoka were penalised for passivity before An struck with a sumptuous tai-otoshi for ippon with 73 seconds left on the clock.

The first bronze medal was claimed by Muki who surpassed European Games bronze medallist Dirk Van Tichelt of Belgium. Neither judoka could break the deadlock so the contest was decided on shido penalties with the Belgian penalised twice with the last indiscretion coming for passivity while Muki was only penalised once.  The second bronze medal went to Olympic champion Lasha Shavdatuashvili (GEO) who won Georgia’s first medal in Abu Dhabi as he set a high tempo against Sai and maintained his impressive workrate for the full five minutes. An ouchi-gari from the Georgian earned a waza-ari score before both judoka were penalised for passivity with two minutes remaining. The unfortunate SAI had to face not one but two Olympic champions in his six contests having defeated U73kg Olympic champion Mansur Isaev in his second contest.