Jun 28, 4:01 PM
Qingdao ends with the heavyweights doing what heavyweights do
Five golds, one home bronze and the usual parade of officials on the dais.
Qingdao saved its loudest applause for the end. On the last day of the Grand Prix, the heavyweight categories produced the kind of clean, ruthless finishes that make judo look less like a sport than a very efficient argument. Five finals, five winners, and barely enough room for hesitation.
Yahor Varapayeu opened the sequence at -90kg by beating Guilherme Schmidt with a yuko after carrying momentum through the preliminaries. Anna Monta Olek followed in the -78kg category, where the world number one collected her fourth Grand Prix gold with a waza-ari against Mizuki Sugimura. That is what top ranking is supposed to look like: no drama, no improvisation, just the medal going where it was expected to go.
The men’s -100kg final brought Adam Sangariev his first Grand Prix gold. He had already looked strong earlier in the day, then finished Giovani Ferreira with an ippon that left little room for debate. Elis Startseva did the same in the +78kg final, securing gold with a hold-down ippon against Lea Fontaine. Tamerlan Bashaev closed the show at +100kg, throwing Hyoga Ota with a huge ippon and taking his first gold in almost three years.
The International Judo Federation, never shy about a ceremonial flourish, handed out the medals through a small procession of its own officials and guests. Louisa Agius Galea, Dr Chafik El Kettani, Nicolas Messner, Bian Qingfeng and Evgeny Rakhlin all appeared in that role, because even sport now insists on a supporting cast of institutional representatives. The medals, however, still went to the athletes, which is reassuring in a modest, old-fashioned way.
China’s home crowd at least had one reason to stay fully engaged. Fuchun Huang collected bronze at -100kg, a neat local consolation as three days of elite judo came to a close. The broader picture was simpler: the final day belonged to the heavyweights, and they settled matters with the kind of finality that leaves little for committees, slogans or afterthoughts.
Written by Thorben Thiede thorben.thiede@alpineweekly.com
