The judoka of the Vigo Famu de Frutos Nikoloz Sherazadishvili it was hung yesterday gold medal in the -100 kilo category of the Grand Slam held in the Georgian city of Tbilisi after defeating Canadian Shady Elnahas in the title fight. Niko, who won his first gold in a Grand Slam since moving to the -100 draw, took an almost definitive step towards the Olympic Games that will be held next summer in Paris.
Sherazadishvili, world number 13 and fourth favoritebegan by winning the Russian Igor Dolganov in his first fight and later got rid of the German George Unidoslauri and the Uzbek Ernazar Sarsenbaev in the final stretch of their face-to-face before reaching the semifinals.
His rival in the penultimate match was the local Mikheil Japaridze, who had caused the surprise by eliminating the number one seed in the competition, the Canadian Kyle Reyes. Once that duel was successfully overcome, He won the gold medal by beating Elnahas, number 7 in the world and second favorite, by ippon.
This is Sherazadishvili’s fifth gold medal at a Grand Slam, the first since Paris 2020; and the second of the season in these events after the silver achieved in the French capital itself. In total during his career he accumulates 13 metals.
In addition, he has five more medals in the Grand Prix, including silver this year in Odivelas (Portugal).
The judoka of Famu de Frutos changed weight at the beginning of 2022, from -90 to -100 kilos. In the first category, he became two-time world champion and participated in the Tokyo Olympic Games.
In the new one, Niko Sherazadishvili had not managed to reach the top of the podium in a Grand Slam until now, a sign that he will arrive in great shape at the Paris Games, for which he is already practically qualified.
In it olympic ranking, The athlete from the Vigo club occupies thirteenth place with 2,970 points and is the only Spaniard among the top one hundred, a list led by the Georgian Ilia Sulamanizde (5,680 points), followed by the Uzbek Muzaffarbek Turoboyeb (5,049) and the independent Matvey Kanikovskiy ( 4,800).
The most outstanding
Niko Sherazadishvili was the most prominent of the Famu representatives at the Tbilisi Grand Slam. Things did not go so well for Laura Martínez (-48 kilos) and last Friday she fell in her first fight against the Brazilian Amanda Lima, a defeat that left her out of the competition. For her part, the Galician Estrella López also could not get past the first round in the -52 kilos box, losing to the Croatian Ana Puljiz in her debut. In this last category, the victory went to the Navarrese Ariane Toro, who won the gold medal after eliminating all of her opponents. In the final, Toro beat the Croatian Puljiz, after getting rid of the Korean Seyun Yang in the semifinals.
2024-03-25 05:16:44
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