Fantastic heavyweight final highlights great comeback of Guram Tushishvili

The Grand Prix of Linz saved the best for last with three-time world medallist Guram Tushishvili (GEO) and double Olympic champion Lukas Krpalek (CZE). It doesn’t get much better than this, but it wasn’t exactly the repetition of the 2021 Olympic final. This time the end result was different. The fight was also the comeback of Tushishvili after his suspension after the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

The gripping in the final was scarily strong from both, power in every movement. At the halfway point Krpalek had two penalties and Tushishvili just one but then the Czech judoka dropped in to attack and was countered with an uchi-mata, giving Tushishvili a yuko. They both continued to fight at full pelt all the way to the buzzer. It was an incredible finish to the Upper Austria Grand Prix; gold for Tushishvili and silver for Krpalek.
Giannis Antoniou (CYP) struggled from the beginning against Jelle Snippe (NED) in the first of the two bronze medal contests. Snippe delivered a barrage, no let-up until he met his marks. A very well executed shime-waza, sode-guruma-jime, with great whole body control, pushed Antoniou to submit, sending this bronze medal to the Netherlands.
Shalva Gureshidze (GEO) strode on to the tatami convinced he would have the upper hand against Yevheniy Balyevskyy (UKR) for the second bronze medal, Very active, the Georgian’s plan began to take shape as Balyevskyy was penalised twice; ko-uchi-gari, kata-guruma, seoi-otoshi, a great range of techniques from Gureshidze. In the end though, he gave too much and in the dying seconds of normal time, Balyevskyy reacted perfectly and countered the 21-year-old for a score, one which could not be matched as the clock had just ticked down to zero.