Brazilian Daniel Cargnin improves bronze into gold

In 2015 Daniel Cargnin won a bronze medal at the World Junior Championships in Abu Dhabi. This time he knew how to take world supremacy. The Junior Pan American Championships winner beat two-time and reigning Junior Asian Championships winner Artyom Shturbabin (UZB) to win Brazil’s first medal in Croatia.

The 19-year-old Brazilian took bronze in 2015 but looked a new fighter today with a well-rounded set of skills which caught the Uzbek off guard with a ashi-waza movement which earned a waza-ari with half a minute left on the clock.

In the first semi-final Cargnin profited from the inactivity of former Cadet World Championships silver medallist Bagrati Niniashvili (GEO) who picked up a second shido in golden score to conclude a contest which was a cagey and scoreless affair. In the second semi-final Shturbabin (UZB) thwarted 18-year-old Worlds debutant Yagub Javadov (AZE) by a single waza-ari score to guarantee Uzbekistan’s first medal of the competition in Zagreb.

The first bronze medal was won by multiple-time Junior European Cup winner Somon Makhmadbekov (TJK) who threw Javadov with an o-uchi-gari after 11 seconds of golden score for a waza-ari. The result gave Tajikistan their first medal of the competition and there will be a belief that Makhmadbekov will now become a long-term source of medals for his country.  

The second bronze medal was won by Niniashvili after an absorbing battle with 18-year-old Bucharest European Open bronze medallist Manuel Lombardo (ITA). Niniashvili found a route onto the medal podium after five minutes and 30 seconds of golden score when Lombardo received his third shido for passivity to receive hansoku-make.

Read all other stories from Zagreb