Preview Finals Day 2 in Qingdao

The second day of the Grand Prix final in Qingdao delivered some surprising finals. In the men’s categories U73 and U81 both finallists have never met before. Rustam Orujov will face Soichi Hashimoto. U81kg Goki Maruyama and Wang Ki-Chun will meet in an interesting Asian final. In the women’s final U63kg it was Busra Katipoglu who surprisingly qualified for the final. China is represented by the experienced Junxia Wang. Read more about the finallists.

U63kg

Turkish Busra Katipoglu came back from an injury and won a bronze medal at the Grand Prix in Tashkent in 2015 and bronze in Minsk. She was Turkish senior champion in 2010. She won European Junior bronze in 2009 and 2011. With the Turkish team she won a few European medals. It’s her first Grand Prix final.

Chinese Junxia Yang won the European Open in Madrid, Grand Prix of Ulaanbaatar in 2014 and Asian Open in Taipeh in 2014. The Chinese participated at major events such as the Grand Slam in Paris. Yang defeated Katipoglu in 2014 in Abu Dhabi.

U70kg

Iljana Marzok comes from a German judo family with her mother who was judoka and her sister Katharina who is a referee. Iljana participated at various world and European Championships and won the Grand Prix of Miami (2013), Budapest and Qingdao in 2014 where she defends her title.

Croatian Barbara Matic became Double world champion in 2013 and 2014 and was European Junior Champion 2013 and 2014. Won various Grand Prix events like in Tbilisi in 2014. The biggest judo talent in Croatia ever. She won the GP Tbilisi in 2014 and won several World Tour medals and bronze at the 2014 European Championships.

Both athletes know eachother well, in fact Marzok is the nemesis of Matic as Marzok defeated her four times, for the last time in the 2014 Grand final in Budapest.

U73kg

Rustam Orujov of Azerbaijan climbed to the World top athletes U73kg via victories at the Grand Prix in Baku (2012), Grand Slam Baku in 2013 and GP Tbilisi and Samsun, both in 2015. Seventh at the World Chs in 2014. In 2015 he won silver at the Grand Slam of Paris. Was born in Ust-Ilimsk in Russia.

Soichi Hashimoto won the European Open in Lisbon in 2014. He won the All Japan Championships in 2015. He won the Kodokan Cup in 2015.

U81kg

Japanese judoka Goki Maruyama won the World Junior Championships U20 in 2011 in Cape Town. He won the European Open in Rome in 2015 and took bronze at the Grand Slam in Baku. Now is in the final of the GP Qingdao.

Ki-Chun Wang was Olympic finallist for Korea in 2008 against Elnur Mammadli (AZE). Wang was World Champion in 2007 in Rio but both in U73kg. Fanous technique and will. He fought great matches against Mansur Isaev, Legrand and Mammadli. Won the Tournoi de Paris in 2009 and 2010. In 2015 he won the European Open in Warsaw. In 2011 he won the GP in Qingdao so can regain the title.