THE CUBAN GUY Iván Silva won the gold medal in the 90 kg division at the closing today of the Grand Slam of Judo in Antalya, Turkey.
Silva presented himself very well this Sunday at the Antalya Sport Arena to win all five of his fights. In the title discussion he defeated the Georgian Luka Maisuradze, marking him ippon when the fight had extended 50 seconds into the first four minutes without a decision.
The man from Matanzas started with victories in group A against the British Jamal Petgrave, who was disqualified at 1:08 minutes; by ippon in 3:17 to the Italian Nicholas Mungai and in the quarterfinals by disqualification of the Hungarian favorite Kriztian Toth, “seeded” in the key due to his condition of third in the world ranking.
The Antillean was very active and superior in the fight against Toth, who had beaten him at the 2019 Tokyo world championship. The European, Olympic bronze medalist in the Japanese capital last year, now received a third shido (penalty) with 54 to go. seconds to finish the fight.
In the semifinals, Silva got his sixth smile in seven fights against the Brazilian Rafael Macedo. This time he gave him ippon in a prolonged golden rule fight until 5:22 minutes.
In the next update of the international list, the Cuban must rise from 18th place by earning a thousand points.
Three other athletes also appeared on the Island today, with the best result going to Andy Granda for his bronze medal in +100 kg. Liester Cardona (100 kg) and Thalía Nariño (+78 kg) also competed.
Granda scored wins against the German Johanes Frey and the Brazilian Juscelino Nascimento; he yielded by wazari with the Georgian Guram Tushishvili and beat the Uzbek Utkirbek Turkboek at the beginning of the playoff to go on to discuss one of the bronze medals. The Antillean took the metal against the Hungarian Richard Sipocz, in a challenge that lasted until 7:06 minutes and was decided by wazari.
Cardona defeated the Turkish Sidar Akkus by ippon and then fell in the same way with the Serbian Aleksandar Kukolj. Nariño could not pass the commitment with the Turkish Hilal Ozturk, winner by ippon.
The remaining gold winners were the German Anna-Maria Wagner (78 kg), the French Lea Fontaine (+78 kg), the Portuguese Jorge Fonseca (100 kg) and Tushishvili.
The medal table was headed by Georgia (2-2-0), followed by France (2-1-4), Brazil (1-1-3), Hungary (1-1-1), Mongolia (1-1- 0), Portugal, Cuba and Moldova (1-0-1), and Canada, Great Britain, Germany and Chinese Taipei (1-0-0).
