Toma Nikiforov believed in it for forty seconds, but he will finally fight for bronze and not for gold in Abu Dhabi after his defeat in the semi-final against Russian Adamian, world No. 1! Back on the international scene after his title of Belgian champion in +100 kg on November 11, in Herstal, Toma was logically short of competition and Adamian, recent winner in Zagreb and Paris, took advantage. Nevertheless, our European champion almost created a huge surprise!
After dismissing the Romanian Serban (21 years old / n ° 169) and the German Petersilka (23 years old / n ° 88), Toma Nikiforov therefore found at the semi-finals stage of this Grand Slam in the United Arab Emirates the Russian Adamian ( 24 years / n ° 1). And the beginning of the face-to-face between the two judokas was to the advantage of our compatriot, the Russian cashing two penalties, for non-combativeness (a height!) And illegal custody.
After coming out of an attempt to immobilize, Toma literally lifted his opponent up to tackle him to the ground. Waza-ari when the clock still showed 1’13 to fight. But the accumulation of fights in a very short time given the low number of entries was fatal to the Brussels resident who, in turn, was overthrown and immobilized (this time, pure for good …) by his rival, at 0’30 de the end.
Result: Toma Nikiforov will fight for the bronze medal, against the Dutchman Korrel (27 years / n ° 8), back from injury, which he has already met six times with, at the end of the day, three victories, three defeats. Suspense …
