Salvador Cases Wins Silver at Portuguese Grand Prix in Judo

Salvador Cases from Alicante, European runner-up at -73 kg, inaugurated the Spanish judo medal table in the Olympic year with a silver in the Portuguese Grand Prix held in Odivelas. Cases, fourteenth in the world rankings, fought for gold with Russian Danil Lavrentev, who competes as an independent due to sanctions against his country and is ranked 38th on the list. A fight that was decided in favor of the Russian judoka with eighteen seconds remaining, when Lavrentev ‘hunted’ Salva Cases and later immobilized the Spaniard to score the victory by ‘ippon’.

The tournament gives points for the Olympic ranking. The 17 best of each weight at the end of the season (June 23), with a maximum of one per country, will attend the Games and the best eight will be guaranteed to be seeded in the draw. There will be some more places due to continental quota. Cases, who was exempt from the first round, beat the Turkish Umalt Demirel in the second and the Mongolian Erdenabayar Batzaya in the third. The Israeli Tohar Butbul, 21st in the ranking, was his rival in the quarterfinals and added a new victory, all of them by ippon, which launched him into the fight for the medals. In the semifinals he faced the Japanese Ryuga Tanaka, number 83 in the ranking, with a new ippon for the Spaniard. From there to the final and the silver medal to start the year.

Rest of the results

In the same category, Jorge Cano beat the Polish Ksawery Morka in his first fight and lost in the next against the Uzbek Obidkhon Nomanov, eleventh in the world. José María Mendiola, at 81 kg, won two fights, first against the Portuguese Anri Egutidze and then against the Beninese Valentin Hoinato. In the round of 16 he lost to the Swiss Aurelien Bonferroni. Alfonso Urquiza, also at -81, was released from the initial round and won the Egyptian Abdelrahman Mohamed in the next. He then fell to Azerbaijani Saeid Mollaei. Cristina Cabaña and Sarai Padilla, very equal in the Olympic ranking (20 and 22), had similar luck in the -63 kilos box. The first was eliminated in her first fight, in the second round, against the Croatian Iva Oberan. Sarai Padilla also started in second with a victory over the Ukrainian Yuliia Hrebenozhko, but followed with a loss against the Hungarian Szofi Ozbas.

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2024-01-27 20:10:27
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