Italy closes with a flourish Grand Slam in Baku 2022 and won three podiums on the third and final day of the event, the one reserved for the heavy categories. The blue movement therefore ends the Azerbaijani competition in fourth place in the medal table with an overall balance of 1 first, 1 second and 3 third places, as well as four other top-8 placements.
The undisputed star of day-3 for tricolor judo is Alice Bellandimore and more at ease in the -78 kg and al second consecutive Grand Slam title after Budapest. The 23-year-old from Brescia, fourth-seeded and n.13 in the world, dominated the tournament showing a clear superiority over all the opponents faced and winning in the final for waza-ari on the Dutch Natascha Ausma after having clearly defeated in the semifinal by the sum of penalties the French champion Madeleine Malonga in just 2’45 ”.
Double third Italian place in the men’s field for the Neapolitans Christian Parlati and Gennaro Pirelli. The former, reigning vice-world champion in -90 kg, reached the semifinals without worries with three victories in regulation time and then was surprised by the projection of the Serbian Nemanja Majdov at the Golden Score, but later made up for it with a nice success on the German Martin Matijass for ippon.
Judo, Grand Slam Baku 2022: Francesca Milani second in -48 kg! Odette Giuffrida on the podium in the -52 kg
Great race in -100 kg for Pirelli, able to get on the lowest step of the podium already in the second tournament played in the new weight category at the World Tour level. victory by sum of penalties in the final with the Ukrainian Anton Savytskiy after paying duty in the semifinals against the Serbian Aleksandar Kukolj at the end of a match in which he touched the decisive point on at least a couple of occasions.
To record the good seventh place of Giorgia Stangherlin in the -78 kg, with a statement on the German Lea Schmid followed by two knockouts in a row against the Olympic silver medalist Malonga and the British Emma Reid in the repechage. Bad defeat in the first round instead in the +78 kg per Asya Tavano against the affordable Croatian Tina Radic, while Nicholas Mungai and Lorenzo Agro Sylvain they stopped in the round of 16 in -90 and +100 kg respectively after winning at least one fight in the preliminaries.
Below is the summary of the podiums of the third day of the Grand Slam Baku 2022 of judo:
-78 kg F
1 Fighting (Yes)
2 Ausma (Ned)
3 Kuka (Kos) and Steenhuis (Ned)
+78 kg F
1 Zabic (Srb)
2 Nunes (By)
3 Ozturk (Tur) and Berlikash (Kaz)
-90 kg M
1 Nyman (Swe)
2 Majdov (Serb)
3 Speak (Ita) e Maisuradze (Geo)
-100 kg M
1 Kotsoiev (Aze)
2 Kukolj (Serb)
3 Pirelli (Ita) and Kurbjeweit Garcia (Ger)
+100 kg M
1 Rakhimov (Tjk)
2 Yusupov (Uzb)
3 Sipocz (Hun) and Bakhtiyorov (Uzb)
Photo: IJF
