Granda achieved the best for Cuba in the world championship. Photo: IJF.
Andy Granda (+100 kg) finished today in fifth place in his division and signed the most outstanding performance for the Cuban judokas in the World Championship of the discipline, an event that closed in Abu Dhabi his individual competition without medals for the Major of The Antilles.
Granda, fifth in the world ranking and planetary champion in 2022, lost in the dispute for the bronze medal against the Uzbek Alisher Yusupov, in a fight decided after two Ministers in favor of the Eurasian.
Prior to that duel, the Antillean had a tournament marked by three victories and one defeat. His debut was comfortable against the Gabonese Bubacar Mane, and then he repeated a success without great excesses against the local Magomedomar Magomedomarov.
Those two wins guaranteed Andy access to the quarterfinals, an instance where he found the difficult Czech Lukas Krpalek. In that duel the Caribbean left through the narrow door, after receiving a couple of Ministers that they sent him to the playoffs and in the process extended the number of fights of the undefeated European against the Cuban to three.
In that instance Granda defeated ippon to the Slovakian Marius Fizel, to ensure his second best historical performance in world events, only behind his 2022 title and better than the seventh place achieved last year in the Doha version.
Ultimately, the division title was won by South Korean Minjong Kim, best in the final over Georgian Guram Tushishvili. The Russian Tamerlan Bashaev and the Uzbek Yusupov finished in bronze.
For her part, in the over 78 kg category Idalys Ortiz advanced to the round of 16, but there she lost due to an accumulation of penalties against the Turkish Kayra Ozdemir, who was ultimately the world runner-up. Before, ours was successfully opened by wazari over the German Samira Bouizgarne.
The crown in the division went to the Japanese Wakaba Tomita, while the bronze medals went to the Turkish Hilal Ozturk and the South Korean Hayun Kim. However, the two great favorites for the Olympic crown in Paris 2024, the French Romane Dicko and the Japanese Akira Sone, did not compete in this event.
Finally, Cuba anchored in 27th place by country, thanks to the fifth place of Granda and the seventh place of Iván Felipe Silva (90 kg). Of the rest of our contestants, only Maylín del Toro (63 kg) and Idalys managed to advance to at least the round of 16.
The tournament was dominated by Japan, with three golds, two silvers and four bronzes. Georgia (2-1-1), South Korea (2-0-3) and Azerbaijan (2-0-0) won more than one title, while France, Italy, Mongolia, Germany and the Netherlands rose at least one chance at the top of the podium.
In America, the best placed nation was Canada, followed by Brazil and the Cuban squad. This Friday the world team competition will take place, but the Island is not registered among the 15 competing nations.
2024-05-23 19:44:17
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