What a journey, again, that signed by Malik Umayev this Sunday, in Sarajevo! After his victorious return to the Open de Visé, the 21-year-old from Liège won a new medal, silver this time, in the European Open. Mounted in -81 kg, Malik disputed the final against the Frenchman Aregba, bronze medalist last year, in Bosnia, before becoming vice-champion of Europe juniors. So many competitions in which Malik Umayev could not participate. Injured and operated on the knee (torn cruciate ligaments), our compatriot only resumes.
But how ! This Sunday, he successively dismissed the Polish Weselowski, the Bulgarian Martirosyan, the Serbian Stanojevic, the Spaniard Solana and the German Cavelius to have the right to compete for gold against Frenchman Aregba (19 years old / n ° 111). And he didn’t miss a lot to win. After less than a minute, Malik indeed placed a very spectacular movement which, at first, earned him a waza-ari before the video came to the aid of his opponent.
After that, the longer the fight dragged on, the more the French gained confidence and began to attack. But neither of the two judokas managed to take the lead in regulation time. Finally, it was after 1’28 in overtime that Malik gave in, winning despite everything a formidable silver medal. It promises for the future !
In +100 kg, Yves Ndao reached the quarter-finals by defeating the Polish Kordyalik, but then lost in extra time to the Turkish Ertug (IJF 97), future finalist. In repechages, the colossus from Brussels suffered a strangulation from the Pole Kolesnyk, synonymous with a seventh place.
In -90 kg, Nicolas Dejace and Jitse Van den Herrewegen failed to make it past the second lap. Dejace lost on ippon against the Serbian Ciric and Van den Herrewegen lost against the German Schmidt.
In -48 kg, Loïs Petit and Jente Verstraeten unfortunately bowed out as soon as they entered the running. Loïs, against the Ukrainian Buiok and Jente, against the French Corcher.
