Judo: Magdiel Estrada wins bronze for Cuba at the Tashkent Grand Slam

The bronze medal of Magdiel Estrada (73 kg) It turned out the best for Cuba on the second date of the Tashkent Grand Slam, a tournament where this Saturday Maylín del Toro (63 kg) anchored seventh and the youngster Idelannis Gómez (70 kg) failed to go beyond her second match.

In the event agreed upon by the Uzbek capital, Magdiel —ranked 17th in the world— got third place after beating local Shakhram Ahadov by no show. In addition to signifying the first podium for the Cuban since July 2022, this result represents the the first medal for him in tournaments with a Grand Slam category, a performance that comes after 17 forays into this type of event.

In Tashkent the criollo only lost his quarterfinal match against the Swiss Nils Stump, his executioner a couple of weeks ago in Tel Aviv, ninth in the global ranking and now a bronze medalist.

In that duel the Cuban could not show his arsenal and, in addition to a reprimand for passivity, he received two wazaris that ultimately declared defeat and his presence in the repechage round.

In that phase Magdiel disposed in just 28 seconds of the Turkish Umalt Demirel, one of the surprises of the tournament by beating the Uzbek Obidkhon Nomonov, the second seed of the event and eighth in the world ranking, in the preliminary rounds.

Earlier, the Pan-American multi-medalist opened his way with a quick victory against the representative of Samoa, William Tai Tin, and then easily dominated the inexperienced Javokhir Saparov.

On the other hand, in the 63 kg Maylín del Toro now finished in seventh place. 20th place in the global ranking and bronze and silver medalist in the respective Grand Slams in Paris and Tel Aviv this year, the Creole lost consecutively to Hungarian Szofi Orbas and Romanian Florentina Ivanescuultimately both occupants of third place in the Uzbek capital.

in front of the first received a ippon during the third minute of combat, while before the second, already in the repechage, he received three warnings against him and lost any option to dispute the bronze medal.

Before those defeats, Maylín enjoyed a couple of successes. The first was obtained by ippon against the representative of Kyrgyzstan, Azhar Isaeva, while the second was obtained in extra time over the experienced British Gemma Howell.

For its part, Cuba also had representation in the 70 kg through Idelannis Gómez. The world bronze among youth in 2022 ventured into its third Grand Slam of the year and He opened successfully in extended time against Jamaican Ebony Drysdale Daley, but then went down for ippon against Croatian favorite Bárbara Maticleader of the universal list and current two-time world champion.

For the closing day of this Sunday Cuba will focus its attention on the presence of the current world champion in the over 100 kg, Andy Granda, as well as the star Iván Silva in the 90 kg. Together with them, Liester Cardona (100 kg) and Omar Cruz (+100 kg) will try to win to advance in the organization chart.