Hidayet Heydarov back with Grand Slam gold

As the top seed, Hidayet Heydarov had a good chance to qualify for the final of the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv, he did not miss the call, although the matches were sometimes tense. In the other half of the draw, due to the last minute absence of Rustam Orujov due to a positive corona test, the path was open for an underdog. Obidkhon Nomonov, coached by legend Ilias Iliadis, did not fail to step into the breach and also qualified brilliantly to face the Azeri for the gold medal.

You recognise a public of connoisseurs when they cheer for good techniques wherever they come from. A good judo move is a good judo move. The first roar coming from the stands was when Nomonov was close to scoring with an aerial uchi-mata but Heydarov escaped miraculously. Just before the end of regular time, the Uzbek was again very close to scoring but it was the golden score period that the athletes needed, entered with only one shido apiece, to decide the match. At 1:16 into extra time, Heydarov executed a spectacular koshi-guruma for a waza-ari that was worth the gold medal. The last time the Azeri champion won gold in a grand slam was in 2019. Welcome back Heydarov!

Igor Wandtke (GER), who was a bronze medallist at the 2021 World Judo Masters and Zhansay Smagulov (KAZ) three time grand prix gold medallist, faced each other in the first match for a bronze medal. Just before the end of the match, the German judoka was penalised a third time, giving the medal to Zhansay Smagulov, his third medal at a grand slam.

Cadet world champion in 2015, Giovanni Esposito (ITA) is now well established in the senior division but had a hard fight ahead of him to get the bronze, against local athlete Tohar Butbul (ISR), encouraged loudly by his home crowd. At half-time Butbul was leading by a waza-ari under the hurrahs of the public but Giovanni Esposito was putting incredible pressure on his opponent, who was penalised twice and was happy that eventually the gong echoed in the venue, rapidly covered by the audience’s explosion of joy. This is medal number 6 for Butbul in a grand slam.