Golden glory shared around the nations at IJF Grand Prix in Marrakech

The three day event held at the Marrakech Exhibition Centre was a huge success with the action on the mats coupled with significant developments off them for the future of sport in Morocco.

On the back of recently opening a third training centre in Marrakech, Mr Rachid Talbi Aalami, Minister of Sports in Morocco was on hand to sign an agreement with the IJF to have four further competitions in Morocco and for a Judo for Children programme to start at 40 schools.

The weekend’s action saw Uzbekistan set the pace on day one (Friday) as four countries earn gold medals.

In the women’s -48kg category, Spain’s Julia Figueroa defeated Romania’s Monica Ungureanu in the closing seconds with a waza-ari score. The Spaniard, a two-time Grand Slam winner and Cancun Grand Prix bronze medallist has struggled to overcome in their head-to-head series which now sits at 4:3 in the favour of the Romanian.

World number one Amandine Buchard Nordmeyer lived up to her ranking with victory in the -52kg category.
The world number one clinched her fifth Grand Prix gold medal beating another Spaniard, Ana Perez Box to extend her advantage at the top of the weight category. The latter was bidding for a second Grand Prix triumph but was powerless to resist a dynamic modified kata-guruma from the French starwhich resulted in ippon.

Chen-Ling Lien of Chinese Taipei celebrated her second Grand Prix win at the expense of Poland’s Anna Borowska who was subdued in the -57kg final.

Tokyo-based Lien earned her first IJF gold medal since her 2017 triumph at the Baku Grand Slam to step up her bid for honours at the World Championships in Tokyo in August and next year in the same city at the Olympics. The Chinese Taipei judoka eventually pinned down Borowska with a ushiro-kesa-gatame which her Polish adversary elected to tap out after 17 seconds.

Six-time Grand Slam medallist Sharafuddin Lutfillaev gave Uzbekistan the first of their two gold medals on the opening day, defeating world number 38 Artem Lesiuk of Ukraine in the -60kg division. First-time IJF finalist Lesiuk forced the contest into golden score and his Uzbek rival surged into action with a huge koshi-guruma for a waza-ari score to hand him his twelfth Grand Prix medal and fourth gold.

Sardor Nurillaev ensured a golden double for the Uzbekistan men’s team by beating African Championships gold medallist Mohamed Abdelmawgoud of Egypt in the -66kg competition.

The Uzbek dominated from start to finish and deservedly beat his opponent by ippon from an armbar to capture his first IJF World Judo Tour title

Saturday’s second day of action saw Bulgaria, France, Slovenia and Russia all come away with gold medals.

Slovenia’s came in the women’s -63kg division as Andreja Leski defeated Abu Dhabi Grand Slam bronze medallist Katharina Haecker of Austria.
The Slovenian went around the back of her opponent for a tani-otoshi for ippon as world number eight Haecker still managed to achieve her country’s best result on the IJF World Judo Tour.

Margaux Pinot completed her Grand Prix hat-trick as the French star swiftly dispatched Ireland’s Megan Fletcher in the -70kg final.
Pinot threw for a waza-ari score and reacted first on the ground to submit her opponent with a juji-gatame. Nevertheless, for Fletcher it was a career-best result which will push her towards an Olympic qualification position.

Russia’s Denis Iartcev topped a Grand Prix medal podium for the second time in his career by defeating London 2012 Olympic champion Lasha Shavdatuashvili of Georgia in the -73kg final.
Four-time Grand Prix winner Shavdatuashvili struggled to deal with the tricky Russian who threw his Georgian rival with a beautiful sasae-tsurikomi-ashi for a waza-ari score. Iartcev then anticipated a soft ko-soto-gari attempt from the Georgian who ended up on his back from a te-waza movement.

Bulgaria’s Ivaylo Ivanov signalled his return to the upper echelons of the -81kg weight category with a useful gold medal success.
Ivanov countered world bronze medallist Vedat Albayrak of Turkey in the final to capture his third Grand Prix gold medal, and having now graced the final at both Grand Prix events this year will be on the verge of breaking into the world’s top 10 after this showing.

The third and final day of action in Marrakech saw a series of first-time IJF World Tour success and gold medals.

Germany’s Anna Maria Wagner recorded a first IJF World Judo Tour win by edging out Kosovo’s Loriana Kuka to win the -78kg gold medal. After taking silver at her home Grand Slam last month, a single waza-ari score was the difference as the uchi-mata of the German judoka once again proved to be effective for the world number 13.

Kayra Sayit won her fourth Grand Prix title for Turkey with an impressive display in the women’s +78kg heavyweight category. Sayit threw The Netherlands Tessie Savekouls for a waza-ari score and will be buoyed by the expected break into the world’s top 10 ahead of a home Grand Prix coming up next month in Antalya.

The final men’s competitions saw former world champion Nemanja Majdov of Serbia had the measure of Germany’s Eduard Trippel in a closely fought -90kg final. Both men were without a Grand Prix gold medal before today and it was the Serbian who registered in the win column today after scoring a waza-ari without reply.

Ireland’s Benjamin Fletcher went one better than his sister and clinched his country’s second Grand Prix gold medal with a hard-fought win over Belgium’s Toma Nikiforov in the -100kg final. Fletcher defeated the European champion after 52 seconds of golden score by countering an ambitious sasae attempt, adding gold to older sister Megan’s career-best silver medal on Saturday.

Germany’s Sven Heinle won gold in the last contest of the weekend’s Grand Prix action by taking out the +100kg men’s heavyweight category. He defeated Kazakhstan’s Yerassyl Kazhybayev, the German breaking the deadlock with a waza-ari score and moving quickly to trap his Kazakh rival in osaekomi for his country’s second gold medal.

There is not long to wait until the next IJF event with the Ekaterinburg Grand Slam taking place in Russia this weekend from 15 to 17 March.