The Grand Slam in Tel Aviv also brought Hungarian success: on the closing day, Christian Toth won a bronze medal in the 90kg competition.
In the 78-pound category, European champion Roman Deco was unstoppable, driving his opponents to the ground in every match. In the final match, Portugal’s Nunes didn’t prove to be a tough opponent either, as they played the match against them in a few seconds.
And the Israeli Minister of Transport, Miri Regev, presented the gold medal for French judo.
Roman Deco summed up: “I was ready to fight, I felt I had to get my best in every match here now. That was from the start, I was in the form of a warrior.”
Dutch classicist Michael Correll also took on stunning form, dropping his opponents with his powerful performance in Juggling. In the final, he faced a local contestant, Israeli Peter Balchik, who was eventually taken by a professional pitcher to the ground.
Corel received the well-deserved gold medal from Israeli Minister of Culture and Sports Haley Trooper.
“My tactics weren’t very special, but they did manage to see a bloody panorama of me, for sure. Sometimes a person is under great pressure and has a hard time breaking out of their own limits. Today I showed you how to judo, the Dutch winner bragged.”
German Anna Maria Wagner won the women’s 78-pound race with a well-deserved performance.
And former Israeli Olympic champion Yarden Gerby was awarded the prize.
Georgian Lasha Picuri will not be in the finals for the first time with other champion Nicolaus Serazadisevili, this time by beating the Spaniard with a sure hand.
Dr. Laszlo Toth, President of the Hungarian Judo Association and member of the organizing committee of the International Juggler Association, presented him with the medal.
Another Georgian heavyweight success was born: Gila Zalesvili won with Russian Ebonan against Tamerlan Basayev.
The award was received by Alex Gladi, a member of the International Olympic Committee and Vice-Chair of the Organizing Committee of the Tokyo Olympics.
We say goodbye to the Tel Aviv magic race with two unforgettable steps: one is a swift attack by Israeli Seraphim Kompanis and the other is an amazing throw-away by the Azerbaijani Elmar Jasimov. The Tel Aviv Grand Slam 2021 race has ended.
