MINSK, 13 May (BelTA) – Belarusian Yahor Varapayeu won the seventh Grand Slam judo tournament of the current season, which will be held in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, BelTA has learned.
450 athletes from 85 countries took part in the competition. The Belarusian team was represented by three judoka – Darya Kontsevaya (up to 78 kg), Ruslan Golovachev (up to 73 kg) and Yahor Varapayeu (up to 90 kg), who went through the entire tournament field in his category. The Belarusian met the Brazilian Marcelo Gomes in the first round, defeated the Korean Han Joo-yep in the 1/8 final and was stronger than the 2017 world champion Nemanja Majdov from Serbia in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Varapayeu defeated reigning European champion Eljan Hajiyev of Azerbaijan, and in the decider he defeated Tokyo Olympics medalist Eduard Trippel of Germany.
The ranking points that athletes collect in Grand Slam tournaments are used to qualify for the Olympic Games. Licenses for the 2024 Games will be awarded to the top 17 athletes in each of the 14 weight classes (7 men’s and 7 women’s), although none of our team’s representatives are included in this number. The qualification phase ends on June 23rd. The next big international start for judoka is the World Championships, which will take place in the United Arab Emirates from May 19th to 23rd.
2024-05-13 06:03:33
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