The top 3 seeds were all very close on the IJF World Ranking List, numbers 12, 13 and 15, but Tselidis, the leader among them, has far-and-away the best profile. The Greek hero won Olympic bronze in Paris just two years ago and in Dushanbe, he showed why!
Tselidis arrived at the final after a series of well calculated throws in the early rounds, to face Mansur Lorsanov (RUS), 3 times a grand slam winner in the past. To earn his fourth would be a challenge against Tselidis, both athletes aware of the risks of opening up too much. However, their reluctance to commit left them open in a different way and they began to collect penalties. As the golden score period approached, each judoka already had 2 penalties; a third in either direction would finish the contest.
The third and final shido eventually arrived with Theodoros Tselidis and Lorsanov could add his 4th grand slam gold medal to his prize list.
After the final, Mansur Lorsanov explained, “I like to compete here because of the support I get. It is just unreal, I have never experienced it anywhere before. The Tajik crowd knows how to cheer. There is no special key to winning against the Greek, but it’s the third time I have beaten him out of our three bouts.”
In the first bronze medal contest, Adam Kopecky (CZE) was immediately under pressure from Eldar Allakhverdiev (RUS) who put a first score on the board after less than a minute, a waza-ari earned via a massive uchi-mata-makikomi.
Kopecky, not willing to let the status quo stand, got straight down to work and equalised a minute and a half later. Then, with a change of tactics he swung underneath Allakhverdiev and caught him with a tomoe-nage for a second waza-ari, signalling the end of the contest. The Czech team had their first medal of the tournament, Kopecky’s third grand slam medal to date.
The second bronze medal would be won by either Daniil Krylov (KAZ) or Mihail Latisev (MDA), the latter placing a yuko on the scoreboard almost straight away. Krylov had to come forward to change the flow but in doing so he allowed Latisev to counter, very close to a second score. Krylov would have to think carefully about his tactics to avoid widening the gap.
Latisev held his ground well under a barrage from the Kazakh fighter and even added a waza-ari to his tally in the last 20 seconds, a lovely o-uchi-gari used to virtually guarantee the win. Krylov came back hard but Latisev was safe and could prepare to step up on to the podium to receive his third grand slam medal.
Final (-90 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-90 kg)
