“This is unbelievable, just crazy,” marveled Judo Austria head coach Yvonne Snir-Bönisch on the second day of the Grand Slam tournament in Dushanbe (TJK, May 3rd – 5th). “A historic day that has never happened before on the World Tour,” cheered sports director Markus Moser. Three ÖJV judoka were in action on the IJF World Tour on Saturday, all three are in the final for gold or tournament victory. Lubjana Piovesana (-63/LZ Hohenems/V/seeded No. 1) will face Dali Liluashvili (AIN), Michael Polleres (-70/JC Sparkasse Wimpassing/NÖ/1) will face the third-placed team from Zagreb and vice world champion of 2022 Lara Cvjetko (CRO) and Wachid Borchashvili (-81/LZ Multikraft Wels/OÖ/2) concludes the final block in Central Asia with his (gold) duel against the Japanese shooting star Yoshito Hojo (JPN). ORFSport+ will broadcast the final block live from 2 p.m. CET (fight order: 3rd fight: Piovesana, 9th fight: Polleres, 12th fight: Borchashvili).
On her way to the final, Lubjana “Lulu” Piovesana defeated Eter Askilashvili (GEO), Kamila Badurova (AIN) and Zagreb’s third place finisher Savita Russo (ITA). In the personal head-to-head against final opponent Dali Liluashvili (AIN), the 27-year-old from Vorarlberg leads 2-0; she won the last duel last October at the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi.
Michaela Polleres, like Piovesana, entered the tournament as number 1, remained safe in her preliminary round fights against Gabriella Willems (BEL), Szabina Gercsak (HUN) and Anka Pogacnik (SLO), especially her success against Pogacnik deserves special mention. The 26-year-old from Lower Austria had lost all of her last six duels on the World Tour against the Slovenian, but this time the fifth in the world rankings clearly prevailed and won with Ippon (after a remarkable ura-nage/back throw). In the fight for tournament victory or 1,000 points for the world rankings, the Olympic silver medalist in Tokyo will now meet the strong Croatian Lara Cvjetko, vice world champion in 2022 and third place at the European Championships in Zagreb in 2024. The only duel so far, at the Grand Slam in Baku 2022, Polleres won.
Wachid Borchashvili also showed no weakness on Saturday in Dushanbe, defeating Mohamed Rebahi (QAT), Tomas Morales (ARG), Zaur Dvalashvili (GEO) and Timo Cavelius (GER) on his way to the final. In the final he supposedly has the most difficult task of the three ÖJV judoka and has to go to the mat against Yoshito Hojo (JPN). The 22-year-old Japanese has only been used internationally twice, last year he won the Student World Championship in Chengdu (CHN), and this year in January he defeated, among others, former world champion Saeid Mollaei on his way to Grand Prix success in Odivelas (POR). (AZE), third place at the World Championships Joonhwan Lee (KOR) and third place at the European Championships Vedat Albayrak (TUR).
A side detail: All three Austrians have already won at least one Grand Slam tournament, Polleres has already won two.
2024-05-04 11:28:33
#Simply #crazy #JudoAustria
