Georgian judo team ended up the first day of Dusseldorf Grand Prix without medal. Yesterday, champions and prize winners were found out in 3 weight classes. Three Georgian judokas wrestled and Amiran Papinashvili (60 kg) had the best result among them. After beating Finnish Valtteri Jokinen and German Tobias Englmaier, Papinashvili lost against South Korean Jin-Min Jang. As there is no repechage at Grand Prix, Amiran took the 5th place.
Davit Asumbani wrestled in 60 kg too. He won over Kazakh Yerkebulan Kossayev, finalist of Tbilisi World Cup, by ippon. In 1/16 final, Asumbani lost against Georgian world champion Giorgi Zantaraia who competed in the name of Ukraine.
Georgian team did not have participant in 66 kg. Nugzar Tatalashvili wrestled in 73 kg. Like Asumbani, he lost in 1/16 final too. Tatalashvili was beat by Estonian Kunter Rothberg. Before that, Nugzar won over German Rene Schneider.
Asian finals were held in the first two weight classes. Japanese and South Korean judokas wrestled against each other. Japanese sportsmen won both finals. Hiroaki Hiraoka beat Jang and Masaaki Fukuoka won over Jun-Ho Cho. Belgian Dirk Van Tichelt became champion in 73 kg. He achieved the decisive victory with beating Japanese Kiyoshi Uematsu who competed in the name of Spain.
On the first day of the tournament, women champions and prize winners were found out in 4 weight classes. Japanese women gained 3 gold medals.
On Sunday, men winners of 4 and women winners of 3 weight classes will be found out. Levan Tsiklauri and Avtandil Chrikishvili will wrestle in 81 kg, Varlam Liparteliani – in 90 kg, Irakli Tsirekidze – in 100 kg, Zviad Khanjaliashvili and Nodar Metreveli – in +100 kg.
Otar Maglakelidze
Judo, Grand Prix
Dusseldorf. February 19
Men
60 kg
1 Hiroaki Hiraoka (Japan)
2 Jin-Min Jang (South Korea)
3 Boldbaatar Ganbat (Mongolia)
3 Elio Verde (Italy)
5 Amiran Papinashvili (Georgia)
66 kg
1 Masaaki Fukuoka (Japan)
2 Jun-Ho Cho (South Korea)
3 Serhiy Drebot (Ukraine)
3 Mikhail Pulyaev (Russia)
73 kg
1 Dirk Van Tichelt (Belgium)
2 Kiyoshi Uematsu (Spain)
3 Ioseb Palelashvili (Israel)
3 Yuki Nishiyama (Japan)
Women
48 kg
1 Tomoko Fukumi (Japan)
2 Charline Van Snick (Belgium)
3 Alina Dumitru (Romania)
3 Shugen Wu (China)
52 kg
1 Yuka Nishida (Japan)
2 Majilda Kelmendi (IJF)
3 Ana Carrascosa (Spain)
3 Hongmei He (China)
57 kg
1 Rafaela Silva (Brazil)
2 Kaori Matsumoto (Japan)
3 Corina Caprioriu (Romania)
3 Giulia Quintavalle (Italy)
63 kg
1 Yoshie Ueno (Japan)
2 Alice Schlesinger (Israel)
3 Munkhzaya Tsedevsuren (Mongolia)
3 Elisabeth Willeboordse (Netherlands)
