Paris-France, Feb 06, 2012: Judo Grand Slam Paris, Men’s -81kg: Olympic Champion, Ole Bischof is Back in the Race: The category of the men’s -81kg was really open as most of the top ranked athletes were absent.
Therefore, at the beginning of the day, to make a forecast was quite complicated. But to find Ole BISCHOF in the final was not a big surprise as the current Olympic Champion is still very competitive. The real surprise came from the Italian, Antonio CIANO, only ranked 25th in the World Ranking List, who entered the final, after having eliminated Abdelaziz BEN AMMAR (TUN), Joachim BOTTIEAU (BEL), Artem VASYLENKO (UKR) Keita NAGASHIMA (JPN) during the preliminaries.
Throughout the final, the Italian continued to dream of a surprising victory, but the experience of Ole BISCHOF finally allowed him to win, CIANO having been penalized for passivity at the beginning of the fight. Ole BISCHOF, is back in the race to defend his Olympic title in London, next August. The two bronze medals went to Keita NAGASHIMA (JPN) and Sergiu TOMA (MDA).
Men’s +100kg: Fifth Paris Grand Slam for Rinner
Who can stop Teddy Riner? This is probably the question that all the men’s heavy weight competitors have in mind. In the final, Rafael SILVA (5th in the WRL and recent winner of the Judo Masters in Almaty) was the last one of the day to try to topple the French, but it does not succeed.
In less than a minute, he was outclassed by RINER, who, after a o-soto gari scoring yuko, concluded with a strangulation technic. Today again, the five-times World Champion, Teddy RINER, was totally untouchable! To the question: “Do you think that you are a legend?”, Teddy RINER clearly answered: “No, I am not, and I don’t feel I am. Maybe, when I will be Olympic Champion, but that’s an other story”.
Earlier during the competition, Teddy RINER and Abdullo TANGRIEV (UZB) met in the semi-final. It was the first time since the Beijing Olympic Games, that the two champions had to opportunity to replay the quarter final that gave the victory to TANGRIEV and a ticket to the final of the Olympics.
During more than three minutes, the fight was really tight, TANGRIEV being really active and avoiding the terrible grip of the French. But when Riner was finally capable of griping the end of the sleeve of the Uzbek, it was to late to avoid a tremendous o-uchi-gari that propelled TANGRIEV on his back for a ippon. The two bronze medals went to TANGRIEV and to the Korean KIM Sung-Min.
Women’s -70kg: Decosse dethroned by Tachimoto:
TACHIMOTO Haruka (JPN – fourth in the World ranking list) was decided to take the advantage over the 7-times winner of the Paris Judo Grand Slam, Lucie DECOSSE, who had so far a pretty easy journey throughout the day of competition. And, beyond all expectations and specially the ones of the public, the Japanese succeeded, after a huge gripping fight.
At the beginning of the combat, the two judoka took a warning (shido) without consequences. Lucie Décosse attempted to place her famous o-soto-gari. She also tried tai-otoshi but the Japanese could block out all her attacks and it is actually Lucie Décosse, who had to avoid several Japanese powerful offensives.
Armless, DECOSSE could not find the solution. Neither TACHIMOTO was able to do it, but she was more aggressive. After the 5 minutes of regular time, the two champions had to enter the golden score, but once again, they were not able to score anything, despite a very last seoi-nage attempt by the French at the last second of the golden score.
When it came to the referee decision, one white flag rose for Decosse and two blue flags for TACHIMOTO, giving a surprising victory to the Japanese. But for sure, DECOSSE, who was not really disappointed at the end of the fight, is already looking forward to the Olympic Games, the only title, which is missing to her outstanding prize list. The two bronze medals went HWANG Ye-Sul (KOR) and to the second Japanese KUNIHARA Yoriko.
Men’s -90kg: Gold for Choriev
None of the top two seeded athletes, from Brazil, Tiago CAMILO and Hugo PESSANHA, could enter the quarter finals, beaten during their second fight. in the final, The Uzbek Dilshod CHORIEV (8th in the ranking list) beat the Ukrainian Roman GONTIUK by ippon just after two minutes, with a beautiful o-goshi.
But before stepping on the podium to receive his gold medal, CHORIEV defeated the recent bronze medal of the Judo Grand Prix, Qingdao 2011, Kirill DENISOV (RUS – WRL 8), Robby VAN LAARHOVEN (NED), Kyu-Won LEE (KOR – WRL 14) and Hesham MESBAH (EGY). In the second part of the draw, the surprise came from Roman GONTIUK (UKR), who is only ranked 46 in the World Ranking List, but who qualified for the final.
To reach that level of competition, he successively eliminated, Dieudonne DOLASSEM (CMR), Marcus NYMAN (SWE – WRL 12), Ivan REMARENCO (MDA), Dae-Nam SONG (KOR – WRL 25) and Asley GONZALEZ (CUB – WRL 7).
Women’s -78kg: World Class Title for Aguiar
In terms of World ranking positions, the Women’s -78kg was definitely the strongest category in Paris as the five best judoka in the world were present, and the competition really had a taste of world championship. In the final, facing the 2010 World Champion, Kayla HARRISON (USA), Mayra AGUIAR (BRA) found the solution to win the 2012 tournament in Paris with a sumi-gaeshi that allowed her to score yuko. Despite some attempts with o-goshi, HARRISON failed to return to the score before the end of five minutes.
In the semi-final, Audrey TCHEUMEO, the current World Champion from France, stopped at the doors of the final. Within a few seconds, she was twice caught by AGUIAR, who swept the French’s right foot with opportunism. This loss, synonym of bronze medal, was a great disappointment for Audrey TCHEUMEO, who had fully recovered after her injury that occurred during the last French Championship. The last bronze medal went to OGATA akari from Japan.
Men’s -100kg: One more Gold for Naidan
The Mongolian, Tuvshinbayar NAIDAN, was not the favorite of today’s competition in Paris, but the only gold medalist in the history of Mongolia at the Olympic Games (Beijing 2008), continues his gold medal collection.
In the final, he beat Jevgenijs BORODAVKO (LAT) by two yuko to one, even if the Latvian could have expected a better score for the beautiful ko-soto-gake that he scored one minute before the end of the fight. Mongolia also put its second fighter on the podium, Temuulen BATTULGA finishing at the third place, together with Ramziddin SAYIDOV from Uzbekistan. The top seeded athlete, Henk GROL (NED) couldn’t do a better place than the fifth one.
Women’s +78kg: Second Title in a Row for the World Number One Tachimoto
The Final of the women’s +78kg between the Russian, Elena IVASHCHENKO (bronze medallist at the last World Championships in Paris), and the world number one and current holder of the Paris Grand Slam title, from Japan, TACHIMOTO Megumi, was a very tactical fight, where none of the two competitors were able to find the right opportunity to score.
And the public had to wait until the referee decision to discover the new gold medallist of the women’s heavy weight category: TACHIMOTO Megumi, who therefore keeps her title until the next year edition of the tournament. The two bronze medals went to Idalys ORTIZ from Cuba and to Anne-Sophie MONDIERE, from France, who once again was capable of using her small size to defeat most of her opponent.
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