Brazilian David Moura becomes the new world number one

Brazilian David Moura captured the world number one position for the first time in his career by triumphing in Mexico in the very last contest of the Cancun Grand Prix 2017. Ekaterinburg Grand Slam winner Moura now has back-to-back IJF World Judo Tour victories for the first time in his career and will take some stopping at the World Championships.

The 29-year-old, who for much of his career had played second fiddle to double Olympic bronze medallist Rafael Silva (BRA), has seven consecutive contest wins from his last two events. The Brazilian outworked the laboured Pan American Championships winner Alex Garcia Mendoza (CUB) who received his third penalty for undoing his judogi with 14 seconds left in men’s heavyweight final.

In the first semi-final Moura defeated world number 127 Arash Soofiani (USA) by ippon after 18 seconds. The Brazilian threw with a yoko-tomoe-nage, a rare sight in the heavyweight men’s judo, and then applied the juji-gatame in a professional performance. In the second semi-final Garcia Mendoza powered past 18-year-old Lima Pan American Open bronze medallist Francisco Solis (CHI) by holding down the young Chilean judoka with a kuzure-kesa-gatame after controlling the scoreboard with two waza-ari scores.

The one and only bronze medal +100kg contest was won by teenager Solis as Soofiani received his third shido for going out in a tentative affair between two newcomers to the IJF stage.