Day 2 - Preliminaries

Let’s begin with the women’s -70 kg category and the return of last year’s winner, Aoife Coughlan (AUS). Her return was short-lived as Samira Bock (GER) beat her in Coughlan’s opening contest, a very early exit for the Australian.

Bock then worked her way to the semi-final but eventually lost to home favourite, double Olympic medallist Michaela Polleres (AUT), under the roars of the spectators in the Tips Arena. She is Austria’s only competitor to make it to a medal contest so far in Linz, this edition.

Great Britain’s Kelly Petersen-Pollard had assisted somewhat by dispatching Japanese entrant Kobayashi in their round-of-16 contest in the same pool. Polleres then beat the Brit by a single but important yuko.

Polleres’ opponent in the final will be 20-year-old April Lynn Fohouo (SUI), in Linz to back up her silver medal won at the Paris Grand Slam only weeks ago. Her semi-final in Paris was the same as in Linz and agains Tais Pina (POR) couldn’t match Fohouo’s anticipation and timing.

At -73 kg, the whole draw was shaken up by a series of errors and statements. Finland’s Valtteri Olin has attended 30 World Judo Tour events but has never placed. He arrived in Linz, in pool A, believing today could be his day, beating European u23 champion Terashvili (GEO) and then double European medallist (in the younger categories, Kvantidze (POR)). He looked to be on course for a great day but he was stopped by Cypriot Kyprianos Andreou, a bitter disappointment.

At the top of that pool, Olympic medallist Daniel Cargnin (BRA), survived all challenges and took the Cypriot out in the quarter-final to guarantee himself a final block appearance, one way or another.

In the second pool, there was massive interest as 4th seed Adil Osmanov (MDA), also an Olympic medallist, and Fabio Basile (ITA), an Olympic champion, fell at the hands of Great Britain’s Ethan Nairne, who has never reached a World Judo Tour medal match before. The Brit then did the unthinkable and sent Cargnin to the bronze medal fight by winning their semi-final. No less than three Olympic medallists stood in front of Nairne at the start of the day and one by one he knocked them all out. What a morning!

At -63 kg, the top two seeds respected the normal order of things fully, allowing us all a moment to breathe. No huge shocks, no moments of madness, just the ability of two strong champions to engage all their capabilities to reject anyone else’s claim to the podium. Rafaela Silva (BRA) and Laura Fazliu (KOS) arrived at their final with little disturbing them along the way.

The -81 kg category brought us a series of stories though, after the calm of the -63’s. Top seed and already a winner in Linz twice before, Antonio Esposito (ITA) arrived with a weight of expectation on him or perhaps the freedom of belief. He was soon carrying disappointment instead though as Vasilije Grujicic (SRB) threw him out of the competition.

Grujicic might have thought he would meet Haru Akita (JPN) in his quarter-final but Jahja Nurkovic (MNE) had already rejected the Japanese campaign, winning with a huge pick-up inside the first minute of their round-of-16 contest.

On the bottom half of the draw, former cadet world number one and serial continental medallist in the junior and cadet ranks, Mihailo Simin (SRB), a gold medallist at the Lima Grand Prix last year, put number two seed Dvalashvili (GEO) and double World Judo Masters medallist Margelidon (CAN) out of contention. It was then that former junior world number one and junior world champion Vusal Galandarzade (AZE) took the reins, blocking Simin’s push to the semi-final.

Galandarzade continued, thawing Finland’s Ihanamaki for ippon in textbook style, a standing ippon-seoi-nage that left no doubt as to the score. Ihanamaki would fight for bronze and on the other side, Simin would also fight for a medal.

In a category where none of the top four seeds made it to the semi-finals, the final block could offer any number of stories. Tune in to JudoTV.com to catch all the action live, not just for the -81’s but for all 4 categories on day 2 of the Upper Austria Grand Prix.