Denis Vieru serves onorthodox judo on a ceramic plate

The discreet Denis Vieru of Moldova deserves his place as world number one in the U66kg category. His regular results at the highest level and his stylish judo have allowed him, over the months, to consolidate his domination of the category. It will be interesting to follow what happens to the Moldovan competitor in the months ahead when all the best are in attendance. In Antalya’s Grand Slam, once again, he qualified for the final where he faced the solid Willian Lima (BRA), who gave his opponents no chance in the preliminary rounds.

Less active than his opponent, Vieru was penalised with a first shido at the halfway point. Then Lima was also penalised but for a false attack. It is with one more penalty that Vieru entered the golden score period, before once again Lima was sanctioned for false attack. No more mistakes allowed but actually the Brazilian competitor made one and stepped out of the competition area. A third shido for Lima and the win went to the world number one, who bolsters his position in the World Ranking List. It was for sure not the best match for Vieru, but the champion proved that even if he can not find a solution to throw, he is capable of managing the tactical part to harvest more points. Vieru can once again have his performance baked on a Turkish ceramic plate.

For a first bronze medal contest, it was Tal Flicker (ISR), silver medallist of the European Championships 2021 and Orkhan Safarov (AZE), winner of the Baku Grand Slam last year, who were to compete for a place on to the podium. Safarov was unable to compete, so the medal went to Tal Flicker.

The second match for the bronze medal saw Baskhuu Yondonperenlei (MGL), winner in Paris in February and Sardor Nurillaev (UZB), winner of the 2021 Tbilisi Grand Slam, face off. Coached by judo legend, Ilias Iliadis, Nurillaev executed a beautiful piece of groundwork to conclude with a reverse juji-gatame (arm-lock) for ippon and the bronze medal.