Vazha Margvelashvili regains gold in his most successful city Abu Dhabi

Vazha Margvelashvili captured the gold medal at the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi in his weight category U66kg. He threw Bouda (FRA), Demirel (TUR) and Kyrgyzbayev (KAZ) on his way to the semi-final.

In the semi final Margvelashvili met Pashayev (AZE), unseeded but also uninhibited. The Azeri had removed both Spanish U66kg fighters from their tracks as well as Piras (ITA) but the Georgian was a step too far and at the end of the preliminaries Pashayev had to resign himself to a third place finish at best. He would face Bayanmunkh for the medal but as he was unable to compete, the medal went to Bayanmunkh and to the host country.

In the final the Georgian Olympic and world medallist was up against an Uzbek with just 3 World Judo Tour medals in his collection but no prior results could dictate the result of this grand slam final. Golden score began with one shido apiece, after a well-balanced contest, which neither Tilovov nor Margvelashvili seemed to be able to lead. After exactly one minute of golden score, Margvelashvili slipped under his opponent with a sumi-gaeshi and a change in direction for a small but satisfactory waza-ari. For Margvelashvili it meant his 10th medal at Grand Slam level and second victory in Abu Dhabi and third GS career victory. Abu Dhabi is his favourite place with three medals now.

At 28 years old and with very little on his honours roll prior to 2020, Mongolian judoka Battogtokh just keeps getting better. At number 5 on the world ranking list and with recent medal-winning performances, including Paris, Antalya and his home WJT tournament, he’s made a serious play for Olympic selection and the incumbent, Yondonperenlei, is under pressure to match his pace. The latter has his own medals hung in the cabinet, not least of which is a world bronze from this year but his spot as number two in the world is under threat, now domestically and abroad and he is not present in Abu Dhabi to block the rise of his potential successor.

Aleskerov (AIN), De Angelis (LAT) and Hall (GBR) all fell at Battogtokh’s behest, Hall providing the biggest barrier when he went  in aggressively on the ground hunting his signature turnover but it wasn’t to be. Hall’s repechage contest saw him go ahead by waza-ari but the unfazed Emirates athlete equalised and then doubled up in golden score, sending the Brit home after what could have been an outstanding performance.

The second bronze medal contest was attended by Kyrgyzbayev and Battogtokh, after Tilovov (UZB), seeded 5th, gave a more than credible account of himself against 4 worthy opponents, including the Mongolian who we had been following so expectantly. If the normal time was quite balanced, it took only a few seconds for Battogtokh to counter his opponent with a ko-soto-gari, combined with a brilliant change of direction that left his opponent flat on his back for ippon.