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sportpoint – stock.adobe.com
Abdul Umayev was beaten in the -81 kg final of the European Judo Open on Sunday in Sarajevo.
The 21-year-old from Liège only lost to the golden score against Frenchman Arnaud Aregba (19), junior European vice-champion, after 1:29 in overtime. Umayev wins his 3rd podium in a European Open after bronze and gold in Warsaw respectively in 2019 and 2020 in -73 kg. Yves Ndao (-100 kg) took 7th place.
Abdul Umayev seems to have digested his passage of -73 kg well even if he must now measure himself at Belgian level against Matthias Casse (IJF 2) and Sami Chouchi (IJF 7). In Sarajevo, he won his first two fights by ippon against the Pole Kyrylo Weselowski (IJF 189) and the Bulgarian Ashot Kamoevich Martirosyan. In the round of 16, he beat Serbian champion Djordje Stanojevic by waza-ari to the golden score. On the same score, Umayev took the measure of the Spaniard Alfonso Urquiza Solana (IJF 35) in the quarterfinals. He then had to wait until the last second in the semi-final to place a waza-ari at the expense of the German Timo Cavelius.
Yves Ndao (IJF 77) qualified for the quarter-finals after the disqualification on penalties of the Polish Wojciech Kordyalik (IJF 167) and then lost after two minutes of extra time against the 18-year-old Turkish Munir Ertug (IJF 97 ), future finalist. In repechage, he suffered a chokehold from the Polish Andrii Kolesnyk, thirty seconds from the end. A defeat synonymous with 7th place.
In -90 kg, Nicolas Dejace and Jitse Van den Herrewegen (IJF 275) did not make it past the second round. Dejace lost on ippon against Serbian Mihailo Ciric (IJF 165) and Van den Herrewegen lost on waza-ari against German Tim Schmidt (IJF 78).
