The next Grand Slam judo tournament took place in Tbilisi, during which more than 500 athletes from 83 countries competed for awards and rating points to qualify for the 2024 Games in Paris. The coaching staff of the Russian team decided to test the youth this time, and they did not disappoint. The team took home two golds and a silver from Georgia.
The first medal of the highest standard was won on Friday by Ivan Chernykh, who competed in the weight category up to 66 kg. In the morning, the athlete easily dealt with his opponents and without any problems reached the final, in which he met with the Asian champion Sardor Nurillaev. The 23-year-old St. Petersburger was not afraid of his more experienced opponent and tried to act as number one. This bore fruit: the representative of Uzbekistan earned three shido (warnings) during the fight.
Moreover, as Chernykh said, only four months ago he underwent surgery on his knee and all his thoughts were only about one thing: to recover, return and win the first Grand Slam tournament in his career.
“And I succeeded. Including thanks to the support of my family and coaching staff, because sometimes I had thoughts of giving up everything. The final went strictly according to my plan: I wanted to win with a throw, but then I realized that I needed to work towards the third shido. I carried out a couple of attacks, and everything was successful. This was the first World Series tournament of his career. I so dreamed of fighting and winning on the international tatami,” the official website of the Russian Judo Federation quotes Ivan as saying.
Timur Arbuzov won another gold in the up to 81 kg category. The World Junior Championship medalist has already won bronze at the Grand Slam tournament, but has not yet climbed to the highest step of the podium. And in Tbilisi, the athlete was maximally focused on correcting this. He completed the first three fights ahead of schedule, and in the semi-finals he defeated the titled Israeli Sagi Muki.
In the final, the Russian had to fight with the Asian Championship winner Sharofiddin Boltaboev. However, even here the 19-year-old athlete did not shy away. He earned a waza-ari with a hip throw, and a minute later with a hold he put an end to the confrontation.
“I started quite confidently: I won against the Bulgarian with a sweep, I turned the Czech over on the ground and held him down, I was able to throw the Moldavian over my hip. It was not easy with the Brazilian Gabriel Falcao, because he is an extremely inconvenient opponent, but at least I got my breath. We already met with the Israeli in Tokyo, but this time his form was much better,” Arbuzov noted.
“As for Boltaboev, today, one might say, we were in touch with him all day, we even rode in the elevator together in the morning and talked between contractions. But I fought him for the first time, and everything turned out well,” the athlete summed up the results of the tournament.
Moreover, according to Arbuzov, his parents, a coach from Tuapse and friends came to Tbilisi to support him. Therefore, he simply could not perform otherwise.
“And in general there are a lot of our fans in the stands, so I was only focused on winning, I really wanted to please everyone. It is doubly pleasant to receive an award from the hands of world champion Avtandil Chrikishvili, who competed in my weight category. I saw a lot of his fights, I love his wrestling,” the judoka noted.
Karen Galstyan had a successful debut at Grand Slam tournaments. The 24-year-old athlete confidently reached the semi-finals in the weight category up to 73 kg, where, thanks to two waza-ari, he defeated the number one of the Japanese team, Soichi Hashimoto. Alas, the domestic judoka was unable to repeat his success in the decisive bout. The owner of a full set of Olympic medals, Lasha Shavdatuashvili, who also competed at home, threw his opponent within half a minute and earned ippon.
As Galstyan admitted after the fight, he previously could not even imagine that he would take to the tatami against the famous Georgian.
“In the finals, most likely, I got overexcited and burned out. Shavdatuashvili was once on my avatar on social networks. At a certain moment it seemed like it was a dream: I was in Georgia, fighting him in front of crowded stands. It wasn't easy. For me, success was the mere fact of competing at the Grand Slam, let alone winning a medal. Thanks to the personal trainers and mentors on the national team who believed in me. I would like to dedicate this award to my family: at home they were very worried about me and were rooting for me,” said Karen.
On the final day of the competition, none of the Russians were able to make it to the finals. The winner of the national championship, Lyubov Orlova, went the farthest in the bracket. In the weight up to 78 kg in the quarterfinals, she lost to Ukrainian Yulia Kurchenko (who eventually won gold), and in the consolation round to Chinese Zhenzhao Ma.