Naidan books only third victory in IJF World Tour

Naidan Tuvshinbayar added Mongolia to the seven different winners of the Grand Prix of Qingdao over years. The event was won by Egypt in 2009, followed by Russia, Korea, Japan, Germany and Sweden last year, this time by Mongolia's experienced multiple Olympic medallist Naidan. It was only his third victory ever in the IJF World Tour.

The final of the men’s U100kg opposed two veterans of the world circuit as the 2009 world champion, Maxim Rakov (KAZ), was opposed to the Mongolian legend, Naidan Tuvshinbayar (MGL), who is still considered as a national hero in his home country, as he helped to bring back peace in Mongolia after his Olympic title in Beijing 2008. After two minutes, Rakov was penalised a first time for passivity and again a bit later as Naidan was always on the move. 20 seconds before the final gong, it was the turn of the Mongolian to be penalised for passivity, but the shido difference finally offered the victory to Naidan.

The first bronze medal fight saw Elmar Gasimov (AZE) and Karl-Richard Frey (GER) fighting for a precious place on the podium. World number two and top seeded competitor here in Qingdao, Gasimov, the winner of the World Masters this year in Morocco was defeated by his teammate and former world champion, Elkhan Mammadov, in the quarter-final (Mammadov then losing to Rakov in semi-final). Karl-Richard Frey (GER), world silver medallist last summer in Astana was definitely hoping for more today, but the experience of Naidan in the semi-final stopped him on his way to the gold. But for sure Frey won’t really be satisfied tonight even if he will get much more points than the London bronze medallist Dimitri Peters (GER) as the two teammates are engaged into a fierce battle to determine who will go to Rio next summer. Peters lost to Dutchman Michael Korrel in an early stage. In the bronze medal fight, Gasimov scored first with a counterattack for yuko and again a bit later but this time for waza-ari, giving no change to Frey to step on the podium.

The second bronze medal fight opposed Artem Bloshenko (UKR) and Elkhan Mammadov (AZE). Requiring the intervention of the doctor twice for minor injuries, the fight took a little more time than usual but ended it with the victory of Mammadov, who scored an almost perfect sode-tsuri-komi-goshi, but Bloshenko landed on the side for only waza-ari.