Anton Shuhalieiev (ESP) and Giovanni Esposito (ITA) stepped on to the tatami with golden hopes, but for the former they were dashed almost instantly. A poor seoi-otoshi attack offered Giovanni Esposito the chance to counter and he did it perfectly, throwing for ippon with a tightly held sumi-gaeshi. Only 15 seconds had passed since the referee called, “Hajime!” And Esposito was already the category’s champion.
The first bronze medal of the category was hunted by Victor Skerlev, a member of Bulgaria’s new, impressive generation, and Otari Kvantidze (POR). Skirled was first to score, posting left before taking the high right grip and hammering Kvantidze with an o-uchi to o-soto-gari combination. It scored waza-ari and was followed almost immediately by another score, a yuko this time. The Portuguese judoka was under heavy fire now and it showed. Skerlev scorde a third time before the end of the 4 minutes to take his third World Judo Tour medal.
The second bronze medal would go to Benjamin Levy of Great Britain or France’s Peter Jean and it was the latter who took the victory, although it must be said that neither judoka played their best hand. Levy attacked often but without the finish necessary to score and often without real kuzushi. Jean hung back more than he might have, allowing the first two penalties to sit next to his name. He caught up though when Levy was eventually penalised three times for false attacks. This is nineteen year old Peter Jean’s first medal on the World Judo Tour.
