There was a lot of emotion in the arena on the third day of the Judo Grand Prix in Dushanbe. The medal table was in favour of the hosts.
The Judo Grand Prix in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, came to an end on Sunday. And the arena in the capital was sold out again. Local hero Komronshokh Ustopiriyon won his third gold medal. For the fans, it was a special experience.
“The Tajik boys love judo so much. It gives me energy. Thank you so much to everyone,” Ustopiriyon said afterwards.
The battle of the Annas ends with gold for Olek! She takes home her first WJT gold at JudoDushanbe JudoDushanbe Judo Dushanbe Tajikistan Sports OlympicQualifiers RoadToParis2024 WJT Olympics pic. twitter.com/4EUxn94Sva
– Judo (@Judo) June 4, 2023
Anna Monta Olek had the day of her life and fought her way into the final where she met Anna Maria Wagner and surprisingly took gold.
“It was great, it was very loud, better than many other places I have fought before, I liked the atmosphere. I like that a lot,” Olek said later.
In the up to 100 kg class, Matvey Kanikovskiy beat Niiaz Bilalov and eventually won. And in the over 78kg weight category, Rochele Nunes took gold in the final against Samira Bouizgarne.
Bashaev takes the +100kg gold! What an end to the very first JudoDushanbe! JudoDushanbe Judo Dushanbe Tajikistan Sport OlympicQualifiers RoadToParis2024 WJT Olympics pic. twitter.com/WGOj9EiOSW
– Judo (@Judo) June 4, 2023
In the 100kg final, all eyes were on world number one Temur Rakhimov – but he ultimately lost out to Tamerlan Bashaev and thus had to settle for silver.
This was the sixth medal for Tajikistan at this Grand Prix and the country climbed to the top of the medal table.