Murad Chopanov unstoppable in Abu Dhabi

In the final of the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam for men U66kg, Daikii Bouba and Murad Chopanov stepped on the tatami, we knew that they might need less than four minutes to decide the winner. Bouba took the lead with a powerful sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi, waza-ari. It was not over though. Chopanov then score a close-to-ippon-waza-ari with a counterattack.

A few second later he doubled to score with this time a o-uchi-gari, that Bouba could not stop. Gold medal for Murad Chopanov (IJF).

Takeshi Takeoka (JPN) and Mukhriddin Tilovov (UZB) were the poster for the first contest for the bronze medal and both judoka delivered an intense contest, that was decided by the penalties. But actually the intensity created the conditions of making mistakes, not the opposite. In the end Takeoka got one more penalty than his opponent. Bronze medal for Tilovov.

The second bronze medal went to the winner of the bout between Obid Dzhebov (TJK) and Erkhembayar Battogtokh (MGL). Dzhebov had a great start, scoring a first waza-ari with a very powerful kata-guruma to take the lead. He was one step ahead all the way through and scored a second waza-ari with a ko-soto-gake.

In the first three pools of the category, the hierarchy was respected to the letter with the three seeded players qualifying for the semi-final. The first of them, in pool A was Erkhembayar Battogtokh (MGL), Asian champion and seventh in the last world championships here in Abu Dhabi.

In pool B, it was Daikii Bouba (FRA), silver medalist in Baku in February but above all silver medalist at the World Judo Masters Jerusalem 2022 who stood out by remaining focused until the end, which allowed him to get the better of Erkhembayar Battogtokh in the semi-final in a particularly close fight. In the previous round, the Frenchman had eliminated Takeshi Takeoka (JPN) after a high-flying contest, during which the waza-ari were distributed in spades.

Finally, in pool C, it was Mukhriddin Tilovov (UZB) who, as the seed, got the better of all his opponents of the day.

There remained pool D, in which Obid Dzhebov (TJK) was supposed to be the strongest, or at least the best ranked, but he could do nothing against Murad Chopanov (IJF) who, on his momentum, beat Tilovov to reach the final and join Bouba.