Irakli Tsirekidze, the only member of Georgian judo team, ended up Tokyo Grand Slam with bronze medal. Olympic champion who was invited to the prestigious tournament individually by organizers defeated three opponents. Tsirekidze won over Cristian Schmidt of Argentina and Tatsuki Masubuchi of Japan by ippons. Then, he beat Ramziddin Sayidov of Uzbekistan by hantei and went through semifinal.

In semifinal, Irakli was to wrestle against Sergei Samoilovich of Russia. He has already won over Samoilovich this year: at European and World Championships. This time, Russian judoka was declared as a winner. Irakli Tsirekidze did not take risk to wrestle on tatami because he was injured while wrestling against Sayidov. Samoilovich defeated Hee-Tae Hwang of South Korea in the decisive match.

Before this match, South Korean judoka won over leader of world ranking Takamasa Anai of Japan. Anai took the third place with Tsirekidze.

Alexander Mikhaylin of Russia became champion in +100 kg. He defeated Guham Cho of South Korea in the final. Before that, Cho won over Keiji Suzuki of Japan. +100 kg was the only weight class that Japanese judokas could not win any medal. Rafael Silva of Brazil and Abdullo Tangriev of Uzbekistan won bronze medals.

Women champions and prize winners were found out in three weight classes. Japanese judokas won all three weight classes. Tomoe Ueno became champion in 70 kg, Akari Ogata – in 78 kg, Mika Sugimoto – in +78 kg.

Otar Maglakelidze