The Cuban judokas, Iván Silva and Andy Granda, won a gold and bronze, in the Grand Slam of Judo held in Turkey. With these medals, the island delegation was among the top 10 in the standings.
Silva won the gold medal in the 90 kg division at the closing of the Grand Slam of Judo in the Turkish city of Antalya. The Cuban did not lose any of his five fights and in the gold discussion he defeated the Georgian Luka Maisuradze, scoring him ippon in extra time.
Born in Matanzas, he had advanced after beating the British Jamal Petgrave, who was disqualified at the minute, then by ippon to the Italian Nicholas Mungai and in the quarterfinals by disqualification of the Hungarian favorite, Kriztian Toth, who was third in the world ranking. . In the semifinals, Silva defeated the Brazilian Rafael Macedo. With this, the Cuban must now rise in the ranking.
The other medal came from Andy Granda, who won the bronze in the division in more than 100 kilos. Liester Cardona (100 kg) and Thalía Nariño (+78 kg) also competed, who went blank.
Granda won against the German Johanes Frey and the Brazilian Juscelino Nascimento, but lost by wazari against the Georgian Guram Tushishvili. He then beat Uzbek Utkirbek Turkboek at the start of the playoffs to go on to discuss one of the bronze medals. There he defeated Hungarian Richard Sipocz, by wazari decision.
The Cuban-Romanian, the man from Villa Clara, Asley González, who was competing for Romania, in said event, in less than 100 kilos, finished seventh, taking a step back in his Paris 2024 Olympic aspirations.
Turkey’s Grand Slam medal table was topped 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).
