Judos First Qualifying Tournament for the 2012 Olympics:
The International Judo Federation Tunis Grand Prix came to an end with a great style. Japanese Kenji Suzuki’s highest score in the heavyweight category earned an “Ippon trophy”. Japan finished the tournament by winning three gold medals, two silver and one bronze. France followed with two gold, two silver and two bronze and Germany left with two gold, one silver and three bronze. It was the first qualification tournament for the 2012 Olympics that are scheduled to take place in London and it also shared US$ 150,000 price money among the medal winners. The next major event of IJF will be Rio de Janeiro Grand Slam which is schedule to start from 22 May, 2010.
The two Japanese victories of Kenji Suzuki and Takashi Ono can be considered normal; on the other hand the French Judoka gave the biggest surprise on Sunday when in 100kg division Fredric Stielegmann beat the World Ranking Takamasa Anai in the quarter final after displaying a great fight and finishing with a beautiful Ouchigari. Fredric in the end of the tournament finished with the silver medal and Yahuen Biadulin won the gold medal. In another event the 21 year old Audrey Teheumeo in 78kg category came at the top and won her first senior title since her career.
“It makes a person motivated to go on. I was focused in the match from the start and in the end all went well,” said the 21 year old Audrey Teheumeo.
Slovenia’s Lucia Polavder won her second title at the IJF Tunis Grand Prix by defeating Nihel Chikhrouhou in the final. The 2008 bronze medalist in the Olympics held in Beijing also had to fight against the fervent crowd to secure victory.The young Slovenian said,
“The tournament was a good start for the Olympic qualification and I hope it remains like this all the way”.
Great news and beautiful combats were also seen on Friday and Saturday as the French Automne Pavia won the 57kg and was crowned number won again in a World Circuit event. This is the first time she has won after her home victory in the Grand Prix Düsseldorf. That was the day when the German team had a great performance won two bronze and along with Olympic Champion Ole Bischof, won gold in the 81kg.
In women’s event at Tunis Haruka Tachimoto (70kg) got the only gold for Japan. On the other hand Ukrainian Volodymir Soroka stood first in the 73kg and winning her team a title.
Another history was made on Friday when a surprising comeback was seen when Kosovo’s 18 year old Majlinda Kelmendi won the first ever World Circuit medal in the 52kg division. Still leading the female division in the 48kg category, Romanian six times European title winner Alina Dumitru won the gold medal once again. However in the male categories Rishod Sobirov won the 60kg after beating Japanese Masaaki Fukuoka in the finals.
This was the initial step in the qualification to the Olympics and rest of the qualification tournament will take place at the IJF upcoming event Rio de Janeiro Grand Slam
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