The Shlomo Arena was sold out for three days at the Tel Aviv Judo Grand Slam. At the conclusion of the tournament, IJF President Marius Vizer honored Israeli real estate developer Amit Tal with the Jigoro Kano statue.
In the class up to 90 kg, Mammadali Mehdiyev defeated the former Serbian world champion Nemanja Majdov with a spectacular ura nage.
The Azerbaijani judoka shows incredible continuity – his 20th World Tour medal was presented to him by Marius Vizer, President of the International Judo Federation.
Alina Böhm brings home silver, she lost in the class under 78 kilos to the Polish Beata Pacut, who won her first Grand Slam gold ever in the final. The Hungarian entrepreneur Michael Michaely handed over the precious metal.
Last year’s Rising Star Award winner, Ilia Sulamanidze of Georgia, defeated one of the all-time greats among judo heavyweights, Michael Korrel, this year. Israeli member of the Knesset Miri Regev presented him with his first grand slam gold.
The fourth gold of the tournament for France was in the class over 78kg. After winning the silver medal in Paris 2 weeks ago, Romane Dicko was in top form here as well. The medals were presented by Amit Tal, founder of real estate developer Bonei Ra’anana.
Our man of the day is Olympic silver medalist and former World Champion Guram Tushishvili, who competed in the 100kg+ class. Israeli-Georgian singer and music producer Moris Janashvili presented the medals.
The final day was that of the Israeli Heavyweight Judoka. For three days, the Shlomo Arena was home to judo’s most passionate fans cheering on their Israeli national team.
Local heroes Raz Hershko and Peter Paltchik won two hard-fought bronze medals. One gold and four bronze is the medal haul for the Israeli team… cheered on by their fans.
France took first place in the medal table with four gold and four bronze medals ahead of Azerbaijan (2/1/1), Georgia (2/1/0), Japan (2/1/0) and Israel (1/0/4) .
German medals in Tel Aviv
Alina Böhm secured the silver medal in the class up to 78 kg. In the final, the 23-year-old from Württemberg only had to admit defeat in the golden score overtime against European champion Beata Pacut from Poland. For Böhm it was the second Grand Slam silver medal after the success in Abu Dhabi in 2021.
Hamburg’s Losseni Kone started the competition in the over 100 kg class by beating Evgeny Shmachilin from Israel. In the round of 16 they lost to Rafael Silva of Brazil, the number one seeded two-time Olympic bronze medalist.
The women’s team was unlucky, because of a corona contact two fighters could not compete.
Tel Aviv – a highlight of the World Judo Tour. Not only in terms of sport, but above all in terms of atmosphere, thanks to the Israeli fans.
The next stops on the IJF World Tour are the Grand Slam tournaments in Tbilisi, Georgia (March 25-27, 2022) and Antalya, Turkey (April 1-3, 2022).
