Aaron Wolf kept the eyes on the prize

Current Olympic Champion Aaron Wolf of Japan is back. At the Grand Slam of Paris he advanced step by step and ippon after ippon without trembling but he nevertheless had to show his highest technical level to eliminate Anton Savytskiy in the semi-final and Nikoloz Sherazadishvili in the final.

Wolf, like a preying animal, is waits for the right moment to launch his lethal attacks. The final was well balanced between the two champions though. With just less than 30 seconds to go, he finally found the right moment to engage his uchi-mata. It was almost ippon but didn’t meet all criteria as Sherazadishvili landed on his elbows and was therefore penalised with a shido, but it was a waza-ari and that was enough to secure the second victory in a grand slam for the Olympic champion.

Last week in Portugal, we highlighted the great return to the highest level of the double world champion from the lower category, Nikoloz Sherazadishvili, competing at U100kg. The author of a very good competition in Odivelas, where he finished in second place, still had to confirm the development in Paris and so he did.

Aleksandar Kukolj (SRB) and Anton Savytskiy (UKR) advanced on the tatami, aiming to obtain the first bronze medal. It went to Serbia and Aleksandar Kukolj after Anton Savytskiy received his third penalty. This is grand slam medal number four for Aleksandar Kukolj.

It was a solid Daniel Eich (SUI) who faced Nurlykhan Sharkhan (KAZ) for the second bronze medal. Three penalties were also necessary for Sharkhan to win a bronze medal.

IJF Referee director Daniel Lascau: "Eich (SUI) performed well, throwing and coming back from a score against him, most notably against Kostoev (UAE). He could reproduce great moments through the day, scoring double waza-ari, earning his place in the final block; he deserves it."

"Kukolj (SRB) demonstrated with some others how good judo isn’t necessarily applied in a brutal way. He had a very respectful manner and he abides by the ethics of the sport. We have short moments on the tatami to try to be the better athlete but Kukolj is one who always shows what it means to be a better human  for far long than that, for society."

Several athletes deserved to be followed closely. The number one seed, Michael Korrel (NED) exited the tournament prematurely, beaten by Nurlykhan Sharkhan (KAZ). Aleksandar Kukolj (SRB) suffered the same fate, also against Sharkhan despite strong wins to that quarter-final, especially beating junior world champion Dota Arai (JPN).

The 2022 world champion Muzaffarbek Turoboyev (UZB) was progressing quietly until he encountered the aforementioned Nikoloz Sherazadishvili. The latter immobilised Turoboyev in the final seconds of a very close quarter-final. In the semi-final, Sherazadishvili defeated Nurlykhan Sharkhan and was awarded with silver today, another confirmation. Aaron Wolf knows what he is doing, he kept the eyes on prize.