Georgian judo team ended up the first day of Paris Grand Slam with one medal. Amiran Papinashvili (60 kg) went through semifinal and guaranteed bronze medal. Another 2 victories and he would have celebrated championship and Georgian team would have won gold medal in 60 kg twice in a row. Last year, Davit Asumbani won gold medal in the capital of France. He beat Uzbek Rishod Sobirov, one of the favorites, in semifinal.

Papinashvili wrestled against Sobirov in semifinal but current world champion showed better result. Before this match, Amiran Papinashvili won over 3 opponents. He started participation in the tournament from the second circle and beat Finnish Iuho Reinval by waza-ari, Chinese A Lamus by two waza-aris within 2 minutes. In ¼ final, Papinashvili beat German Tobias Englmaier by yuko.

Another Georgian Betkil Shukvani (60 kg) lost against Armenian Hovhannes Davtyan in 1/8 final. Before that, Shukvani won over Saudi Arabian Eisa Mairash by ippon and Czech Pavel Petrikov.

Sobirov and Davtyan wrestled against each other in the final. Sobirov beat Davtyan by ippon and gained 300 rating points.

Also, winners of 66 and 73 kg were found out on Saturday. Georgian team did not judoka in 66 kg. Two Georgian sportsmen wrestled in 73 kg. Nugzar Tatalashvili beat Jewish Ioseb Palelashvili by 2 waza-aris within 3 minutes. But in the second circle, Tatalashvili lost against Tajik Rasul Bokiev by hantei. Tengiz Paposhvili could not win over South Korean Von Iun Kim. Before this 1/8 final match, Georgian judoka beat 2 opponents – Nigerian Abbas Salihu within one minute and half and Belgian Dirk Van Tichelt within 3 minutes and half.

Japanese Riki Nakaya wrestled without one loss in 73 kg.

On the first day of a 2-day tournament, women winners of 4 weight classes were found out. The hosts won 2 gold medals. Mongolian and Japanese judokas won one gold medal.

On February 6, men winners of the rest 4 weight classes and women winners of the rest 3 weight classes will be found out. Georgia will have two participants in 81 kg: Levan Tsiklauri and Lasha Zurabiani. Varlam Liparteliani will wrestle in 90 kg, Levan Zhorzholiani – in 100 kg and Adam Okruashvili – in +100 kg.

Zurabiani will start participation in the tournament from the second circle. He will wrestle against Uzbek Mumin Nabiev. Winner between these two judokas will wrestle against Moroccan Safuan Ataf. Tsiklauri will start competition from 1/16 final and winner between Finnish Antti Virta and Qatari Avad Naem will be his opponent.

Liparteliani will also start participation from the third circle – 1/16 final. Before that, Jordanian Ibrahim Khalaf and Dutch Robby Van Laarhoven will wrestle against each other. Zhorzholiani will open Grand Slam with wrestling against winner between Polish Romash Domanski and French Mael Le Normand. Bulgarian Ivan Iliev will be opponent of Okruashvili.

 

Otar Maglakelidze

 

 

Judo, Grand Slam

Paris, February 5

 

Men

60 kg

1 Rishod Sobirov (Uzbekistan)

2 Hovhannes Davtyan (Armenia)

3 Amiran Papinashvili (Georgia)

3 Giorgi Zantaraia (Ukraine)

 

66 kg

1 Junpei Morishita (Japan)

2 Armen Nazaryan (Armenia)

3 Masaaki Fukuoka (Japan)

3 David Larose (France)

 

73 kg

1 Riki Nakaya (Japan)

2 Attila Ungvari (Hungary)

3 Yasuhiro Awano (Japan)

3 Ugo Legrand (France)

 

Women

48 kg

1 Haruna Asami (Japan)

2 Eva Csernoviczki (Hungary)

3 Dayaris Alvarez (Cuba)

3 Sarah Menezes (Brazil)

 

52 kg

1 Bundmaa Munkhabaatar (Mongolia)

2 Soraya Haddad (Algeria)

3 Ana Carrascosa (Spain)

3 Priscilla Gneto (France)

 

57 kg

1 Automne Pavia (France)

2 Aiko Sato (Japan)

3 Corina Caprioriu (Romania)

3 Telma Monteiro (Portugal)

 

63 kg

1 Gevrise Emane (France)

2 Lili Xu (China)

3 Clarisse Agbegnenou (France)

3 Urska Zolnir (Slovenia)