World and European medallist Luukas Saha (FIN) arrived in Tbilisi as the number one seed and lived up to that designation in the early rounds. One by one he picked off his opponents, impressive ne-waza often giving him the edge. His European championship campaign was off to a great start!
In the final, Murad Chopanov (RUS) awaited Saha, a formidable opponent who already has European medals at the junior, U23 and senior levels. The Finn wasn’t fazed though and went straight to work launching a huge pick-up that wasn’t far from finishing the contest almost as soon as it had begun. Upon review it was shown to not have a landing synonymous with a score and so all remained even. This gave Chopanov time to regroup.
The judoka remained even right through normal time and headed into golden score. Neither lost power, the pace was sustained but no score could be registered in either direction. Chopanov, remembering how he came close to defeat in the opening exchange, then found his rhythm. Just over a minute of extra time had played out when he completed his own pick-up but his landing was clearly more effective than Saha’s had been and a yuko became visible on the board. It was gold for Chopanov and silver for Saha.
In the first of the bronze medal contests, Davit Abrahamyan (ARM) and Walide Khyar (FRA) promised an all-action clash and that is exactly what they delivered. Khyar though was determined that the medal would be his and with two expertly timed sumi-gaeshi attacks he dominated the scoreboard, ippon for the second finishing the fight.
Ten years after his first senior European medal Khyar had his fourth, a bronze. France has secured a medal in each category of the first day, laying out their intentions for this championship.
To complete the podium, Turan Bayramov (AZE) and Abdullakh Parchiev (RUS) stepped into the arena. Even, close, physical but clearly holding back, the two passed the time gathering information and searching for the right moment to build a winning attack. It was Bayramov who did this best and with 90 seconds to go he used a slick combination of seoi-otoshi and tani-otoshi to earn the much-needed ippon. A fifth place and two sevenths had been his best results among the seniors at continental level, until today. Bayramov finally has his medal!
Author: Jo Crowley