Sensational victory for Swiss Nils Stump

We know that Wandtke knows better than anybody how to outdo himself when he faces legendary judoka. He was, to everyone's surprise, the victory over the double Olympic champion, Shohei Ono (JPN), during the mixed team tournament of the Tokyo 2020 Games, throwing him twice for waza-ari. At the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv, it was World Champion Tsend-Ochir who paid the price for facing the Wandtke tornado and it was therefore the German who qualified for the final U73kg against Swiss Nils Stump.

In the second half of the draw, Canadian Arthur Margelidon was expected but in the end it was Nils Stump (SUI) who made the most of his seeding, to join Wandtke in the final, after a victory against Magdiel Estrada (CUB) in the semi-final.

After one minute, each finalist had one shido. It is not that Wandtke was very precise and efficient but he was definitely more active so with 1:25 to go, a second penalty was given to Stump for passivity. Unfortunately, as mentioned, Wandtke's attacks lacked precision and were often close to being designated as false attacks, leading the referee to award the German judoka with a second penalty.

When moving into golden score there were a few acrobatic escapes from both judoka but it was finally Nils Stump who scored a waza-ari with a sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi earning the gold medal.

The first match for a bronze medal was contested by Mark Hristov (BUL) and Magdiel Estrada (CUB). Despite having two shido to his name when the golden score started, Mark Hristov won by throwing his opponent with a counterattack for waza-ari, concluded with an immobilisation for ippon. This is the first bronze medal in a grand slam for Mark Hristov.

Daniel Cargnin (BRA) and Tsend-Ochir Tsogtbaatar (MGL) battled for the second bronze medal. The least to be said is that there were a lot of medals on stage at that point. With Daniel Cargnin being world and Olympic medallist and World Judo Master, and Tsend-Ochir Tsogtbaatar being the current world champion, for sure no-one wanted to lose. However, with three penalties to his name, the Mongolian champion had to bow out and the medal went to Daniel Cargnin.

The reigning world champion, Tsogtbaatar Tsend-Ochir, had a boulevard in front of him to reach the final. After a first round won against Panagiotis Shakos (CYP) and the next against Joshua Green (IRL), then finally a victory against Mark Hristov (BUL), he only had to challenge the German Igor Wandtke to continue his race towards the gold medal.