African Open Port Louis seems a good investment

The strong Russian team won three gold medals at the African Open in Port Louis. The event was also a good result for three African judoka who won three gold medals on Sunday. Assmaa Niang won gold U70kg. Each year she books an important victory, although last year’s Grand Prix victory in Düsseldorf is more important than today’s motivational gold in Mauritius. Niang beat Irina Gazieva in the final in a field that wasn’t too bad.

Sonia Asselah of Algeria won the second African gold medal. The 24-year old heavyweight defeated Katarzyna Furmanek of Poland in the final on Sunday. The African champion of 2014 and 2012 and  silver medallist at the 2015 All African Games won three matches, two against Europeans.

On Saturday all gold medals were for Europe, in the category U78kg it was Laia Talarn who claimed the gold medal for Spain on Sunday. For the Spanish champion it was the second World Cup victory in her career, in 2014 she won gold at the Pan American Open in Santiago. Talarn defeated Alena Kachorovskaya in the final. Next to three gold medals for Russia, three silver medals.

Russia added a third gold by Renat Saidov today in the heavyweight category. The tall Russian overcame Mohammed Tayeb in the final. A nice warmup for the Grand Slam of Tokyo where Saidov wants to defend his title.

Srdjan Mrvaljevic of Montenegro again booked a World Cup victory. In the category U81kg he defeated British strong man Owen Livesey, the winner of the British Open in October. Despite his 31 years Mrvaljevic is still able to win, in July he won the Asian Open in Taipeh.

The British team won gold by Benjamin Fletcher U100kg. In January he also won the African Open of Tunis. In between he won bronze in Ulaanbaatar, London and Glasgow stating that Fletcher is getting better each year. Swiss Patrik Moser won silver in this weight class.

The only African gold medal for men in this event was for Zack Piontek. He continues to improve and is able to mingle among the best athletes, given his fifth place at the Grand Slam in Tyumen. But this gold will motivate Piontek to try to qualify, the 100 point likely bring him among the qualified 22 best U90kg.