-90kg: Murao's Mastery

Zgank, at the top of pool B, carrying golden hopes for Turkiye, did not begin his day smoothly, overcoming his Korean opponent narrowly in a fierce shido battle. In the round of 16 he looked uncomfortable too against Babutsidze (GEO) but a well timed yoko-guruma gave him some breathing space and he managed to follow it up with a second score from a seoi-otoshi. He looked out of sorts but eked out the wins in the early phases and that was enough to keep the host’s hopes alive.

More shido play sent Zgank past an energetic Ngayap-Hambou (FRA) in the quarter-final stage and then in the semi-final he faced Talbov, the third Azeri in the world rankings, behind Fatiyev and Hajiyev. A gold and 1000 points would move Talibov into second place for Azerbaijan, still not close to Olympic selection but better and so in Antalya he fought with all of his might. He beat the Turk nailing a gold-free day for the hosts but Zgank would fight for bronze, one of three Turkish judoka in that position on day 3.

On the bottom half of the draw Murao (JPN) and Bobonov (UZB) should play out a semi-final together, all rankings being obeyed. They did just that, not allowing anyone to interrupt their respective journeys. In that semi-final Murao dominated both the attack and counter-attack games eventually throwing the Uzbek world champion for ippon with a spinning ashi-guruma.

Sanshiro Murao is in excellent shape and in the final, would give Talibov a serious reason not to bank on those 1000 points. However, Talibov wasn't willing to go down without a fight regardless of ranking or probability and he countered Murao's first tani-otoshi attempt for waza-ari. Murao then opened up and showed everyone what high level judo should look like. He attacked with o-uchi-gari, osoto-gari several times and outgripped the Azeri in a whole different way. To be down by a score and produce such a change in gears is absolutely world class.

Murao threw Talibov with ashi-guruma for one score and immediately, forced him to acceot two shido and then threw again with a tani-otoshi, adding salt to the wound as it was a tani-otoshi that Talibov countered for the first score of the contest. Sanshiro Murao is the gold medallist in Antalya having fought exactly as any youngster taking up the sport should aspire to.

In the first contest for a bronze medal Silva Morales (CUB) who had been beaten by Talibov in the quarter-final, would face 2022 world champion Bobonov.

It was a fantastic contest with both athletes looking for the big ippon throw. Silva Morales countered for a first score to be added to the board which was followed fast by an uchi-mata from Bobonov, equalising. Silva Morales won in the very next exchange with an incredible take-back. It was an all-action contest which sent the bronze medal home with the Cuban.

The second bronze medal of the -90 kg category would go to Peter Safrany (HUN) or Mihael Zgank, the arena rooting for the latter without question. Zgank, following suit from his preliminary rounds, taking time to get into the swing of things, was penalised first but a tight sumi-gaeshi for ippon increased the volume in the arena as Zgank won his 6th medal in as many tournaments.

His 2023-2024 record is stunning and and he is going into his final Olympic preparation in the best position possible, with confidence and evidence of his ability.