Serbian women rock the records in Georgia

What a day for Serbijan judo with two gold medals at the opening day of the Grand Slam in Tbilisi and another silver medal because of an all Serbijan final. An incredible performance of the growing women’s team. Each day they came closer to the top and this year they captured three medals in one day.

The main surprise of the day in the women’s division was for Marica Perisic who defeated Nora Gjakova in a static and poor final U57kg. Perisic kept the pace in the match and kept attacking despite the pressure of the Olympic Champion from Kosovo. It resulted in a kumi kata fight where there referee gave the third of his five penalties to Gjakova. Never in one day, never in a World Judo Tour event, Serbija captured two titles, let alone three finals.

The biggest surprise though came from an even smaller judo nation: Kyrgyzstan that captured a gold medal U66kg after Kubanychbek Aibek Uulu defeated Baskhuu Yondonperenlei of Mongolia by ippon after a sticky foot who strong ashi waza that roled Yondonperenlei onto his back. Kubanychbek Aibek Uulu won the first IJF World Tour gold medal ever for Kyrgyzstan after five lost finals at Grand Prix level for other athletes in the past. Aibek Uulu and his coach celebrated their performance after the match and probably that will go on the whole day. Kyrgyzstan is now definitely on the world judo map after this mindblowing result of the 22-year old former Asian Junior Champion.

In the men’s lightweight category Turan Bayramov of Azerbaijan silenced the home crowd in the Georgian Arena by stunning Giorgi Sardalashvili who claimed the only medal for the home country. Bayramov caught the gold medal after the match was equal as both men scored wazari but Bayramov continued to fire attacks on won the final U60kg.

Milica Nikolic overcame Andrea Stojadinov in the final for women U48kg. A dream final for the Serbijans and the pace of the match was tremendous with many attacks but all unsuccessful although Nikolic was the closest. Also in this final, the penalties were the decision maker. Although Nikolic seemed to make an illegal attack, the referees denied it after watching closely and gave the winner of the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv her third penalty, gold for Nikolic and both athletes respected the decision.

Another surprising gold medal went to Diyora Keldiyorova. Seeing her name on the highest stage is not a surprise as her development continues her way up but defeated the Olympic Champion (U48kg) “Disi” Krasniqi was definitely a surprise. Two losses in the final for Kosovo this time but it won’t crack their own development and will keep them sharp. This time other countries took the opportunity with severe attacking and brave victories, other than the pundits might have expected in advance. That makes judo so attractive and unpredictable.