The third Grand Slam tournament of the year will take place this weekend in Tashkent (UZB, March 1st – 3rd). 495 judoka from 68 nations named, including two Austrians: Shamil Borchashvili (-81/LZ Multikraft Wels/OÖ/seeded No. 2) and Thomas Scharfetter (-90/ESV Sanjindo Bischofshofen/S).
The memories of last year are almost too good to be true: From an Austrian perspective, the Grand Slam in Tashkent 2023 could hardly have gone better: Michaela Polleres (-70) celebrated her Grand Slam debut victory with a double final victory -World champion Barbara Matic (CRO), Shamil Borchashvili (-81) and Aaron Fara (-100) each took second place. That was enough for Austria to achieve an extraordinary third place in the medal table – only beaten by judo superpower Japan and hosts Uzbekistan.
Shamil Borchashvili will be up against world number one Matthias Casse (BEL), Olympic champion Takanori Nagase (JPN) and former world champion Sagi Muki (ISR) in the 81 kg category. Thomas Scharfetter (-100) is ranked number 19 out of 38 starters. The 23-year-old from Salzburg is currently 848 world ranking points short of an Olympic starting place. The top seed is local hero, last year’s winner and former world champion Davlat Bobanov (UZB). There are 1,000 points for winning the Grand Slam, 700 for second place and 500 for third place.
2024-02-28 19:31:37
#Good #omen #JudoAustria
