The Upper Austria Grand Prix, popular, busy and dynamic, always delivers an atmosphere and with so many surprises on the middle day of competition, it was an absolute pleasure to witness this final block.
In the final, 2025 Lima Grand Prix winner, Vusal Galandarzade (AZE) and Adult Almat (KAZ), a first-timer in a World Judo Tour final block, arrived ready to make their mark. It was the former who opened the bidding, countering for a yuko a minute and a half into the contest. However, he was also up against two penalties and that made him cautious. Protecting his score too much, Galandarzade left a space for Almat to fill. Using a fast sumi-gaeshi, Almat scored a waza-ari and moved straight into a hold-down. The gold was heading to Kazakhstan.
The first bronze medal went to Azerbaijan’s Omar Rajabli. He threw Ihanamaki of Finland pretty quickly after ‘hajimie’ was called. Without any break in the action, the judoka tried to turn each other over but continuous escapes and adjustments left the final result still unknown but not for very long. Still in the same exchange, Rajabli turned Ihanamaki on to his back and held him for the necessary ten seconds.
In the second bronze medal contest Mihailo Simin of Serbia faced teammate Vasilije Grujicic. Both of these young judoka have proved that they are capable of making the jump up to the senior level despite their young ages. The fearlessness of Grujicic and the intelligence of Simin have been difficult adversaries for anyone facing them in recent months.
Only one of them could win the bronze medal and at the end of a tight contest it was Simin who edged it, attacking just a little more readily than his compatriot. The win was taken on penalties but that was no reflection on the level of judo thsee young men brought to the tatami in Linz.
Final (-81 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-81 kg)
