Overdosis of success for Georgian men with golden boy Vladimir Akhalkatsi

The Georgian young men did not remain inactive in the third day of the Junior World Championships. In the U81kg division, it is Vladimir Akhalkatsi, who got his ticket for the highest step on the podium against the Russian David Karapetyan, winner of the Coimbra Junior European Cup on March 16th.

After a little more than a minute, Akhalkatsi took a serious advantage by putting a waza-ari on the counter, before concluding a few seconds later, on a standing sode-tsuri-komi-goshi of great beauty.

The other Georgian also qualified for the bronze medal match, in which Tato Grigalashvili (GEO) was against the Azeri, Murad Fatiyev. After a start of the match in which the two athletes watched each other for a long time and were penalized several times, it was Tato Grigalashvili who scored first on a redoubled kata-guruma attack for a smooth ippon.

The Italian delegation was expecting a lot from Giacomo Gamba, the son of Olympic Champion and now head coach of the Russian team, Ezio Gamba. Unfortunately the young man, ill, could not appear on the tatami. The Italian team was nevertheless present in the final block thanks to Kenny Komi Bedel who was opposed to Guilherme Schimidt (BRA) to get on the podium. The match began at a faster pace than the previous one. The first action, on de-ashi-barai, was executed by Schimidt, but outside the competition area and especially after the 'mate' of the referee, it was not counted. As the last seconds approached, the Italian had already been penalized twice, leaving him no other chance than to score in the golden score. The Brazilian was penalized for the first time. Exhausted, the two athletes were looking for the slightest breath to recover. Finally, Guilherme Schimidt scored a magnificent ippon on arai-goshi to win the bronze.