Huge success for Spain celebrating world title of Fran Garrigos

Junior European champion Francisco Garrigos of Spain produced a remarkable day of judo as he followed up on his continental success by winning the world title in Fort Lauderdale.

Garrigos who was regarded by many fans and experts as the fighter of the day, defeated the gutsy 2013 Cadet World Championships bronze medallist Tsendochir Tsogtbaatar (MGL) who pushed him all the way in a glorious -60kg final. Garrigos sent his team wild by securing the shime-waza which forced Tsendochir to tap out after 90 seconds.

After stepping off the medal podium Garrigos said: “No doubt this has been a fantastic year for me, winning Junior European and Junior World gold. The hardest fight was the first one when I was losing by two shido penalties against Bazarsad Sumiyabazar (MGL) with 10 seconds left. I changed the scoreboard by scoring a waza-ari. Next week I go to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. My big dream is to get to the Rio 2016 Olympics and give my best there.

In the first semi-final Garrigos defeated Junior All Japan Championships winner Hayashi Kohei (JPN) to end Japan’s hopes of a full house on day one. The Spaniard scored a yuko with a sumi-gaeshi and that minor score proved to be the pivotal moment as Hayashi could not break down the spirited defence of his determined foe. In the second semi-final Tsendochir saw off Qingdao Grand Prix gold medallist Choi In Hyuk (KOR). Tsendochir prevailed by way of a single shido penalty which separated the rivals after four minutes of action at the last four stage.

The first bronze medal was won by Choi who beat Prague Junior European Cup winner Davud Mammadov (AZE) by a waza-ari while the second bronze medal went to Mehman Sadigov (AZE) by ippon against Hayashi as Japan missed out on a medal in the -60kg category.  

Junior All Japan Championships winner Umekita Wataru (JPN) who finished fifth at the Cadet World Championships a year ago lit up the lightest category in the junior men’s ranks to continue his country’s prominence on day one. In the -55kg final Umekita defeated Junior European Championships bronze medallist Kamal Fikri (FRA) with a huge ippon which had the crowd purring in satisfaction.

World champion Kondo Ami of Japan returned to junior action on Wednesday and was a class apart as she ruled the -48kg category with plenty still in reserve. Kondo won the cadet world title in 2011, the senior world title in August of this year and has now completed the list with the junior title. Kondo defeated Junior European champion and Baku Grand Slam bronze medallist Dilara Lokmanhekim (TUR) in the -48kg final. The Japanese ace initiated an attack with a sumi-gaeshi movement before extending her other leg to lift her Turkish opponent into the air for ippon after 82 seconds.

Junior Asian Championships winner Sakaguchi Hitomi of Japan made a winning start for Japan as she won the first final of the Junior World Championships in Florida. The 20-year-old defeated Pan American Championships winner Larissa Farias (BRA) to win the first world title of her career. Farias was penalised for passivity and that was all the encouragement Sakaguchi needed to make a flurry of attacks which ended with a yuko score from a morote-seoi-nage. The Japanese dynamo showed her ne-waza prowess with a series of turnovers before engineering the opportunity to hold her rival down with a kuzure-yoko-shiho-gatae for 20 seconds and ippon.