Georgia dominates on the second day of the World Judo Masters in St. Petersburg, Russia
ADVERTISEMENTDay two of the World Judo Masters in St. Petersburg, Russia and our man of the day was Georgia’s reigning European Champion, Guram Tushishvili. In the final against World Number 1, David Moura of Brazil, he threw for a spectacular Ippon to delight the many Georgian fans inside the Yubileyny Sports Palace. In the absence of the King, Teddy Riner, he proved he’s the best of the rest.
Georgian, Guram Tushishvili was thrilled with the result,
“Of course 3 gold medals is a very good result for us. I’d like to thank all of our audience and supporters and friends. What can you say? At the end of the year we came good, we won no golds at the World Championships, but right now at the end of the season we got a good result, 3 Golds is a really fantastic result for us.”
Brazil’s Maria Portela was our woman of the day, as she came out the surprise winner of the under 70kg category, after throwing Croatia’s Barbara Matic for Waza-ari, and then scoring an Ippon on the ground with a pin. She was overjoyed with the victory. Portela’s medal was awarded to her by Academy award-winning actor Adrien Brody.
Korea’s Kim Minjeong won the over 78kg category when she defeated 2012 Olympic Champion Ortiz of Cuba, giving Korea a gold medal to cheer. Viktor Huszár, Vice President of the International Teqball Federation, awarded Marhinde Verkerk of the Netherlands the under 78kg Gold medal.
The pressure was on at under 81kg for reigning Olympic Champion Khasan Khalmurzaev. Fellow Russian Aslan Lappinagov would be his opponent in a final which guaranteed the home crowd a gold medal. But it was Khalmurzaev’s travelling fans that would be cheering the loudest as a Waza-ari from a Ko uchi gari gave him the gold medal.
The rest of the day was all about Georgia. At under 90kg Beka Gviniashvili took his first IJF Judo World Tour Gold since February, when he defeated Korea’s former World Champion Gwak Donghan in the final.
It was left to Georgia’s under 100kg World Silver Medalist Varlam Liparteliani to round off a fantastic event for his country with a third gold. A waza-ari in the final against World No.1 Michael Korrel of the Netherlands was enough to get the job done.
Our move of the day also came at under 100kg. Hungary’s Miklos Cirjenics won bronze with this fantastic Ippon against Portugal’s Jorge Fonseca.
But it was all about Georgia, and after Hungarian Judo Federation president Dr László Tóth awarded Liparteliani his Gold medal, he was able to stand atop the podium a proud man as his anthem played out.